Modern pollen–vegetation relationship from the Mahasamund District (Chhattisgarh), central India: implications for palaeoecological reconstruction

Abstract

The study of modern pollen–vegetation relationship is crucial for the proper interpretation of fossil pollen records. In the present study, a total of 29 surface samples, collected from the edge of the forested areas of the Mahasamund District, Chhattisgarh State, central India, were palynologically analysed with the principal aims of evaluating the modern pollen assemblages and understanding the modern pollen and extant vegetation relationship. The study reveals the dominance of non-arboreal pollen (NAP) taxa over the arboreal pollen (AP) taxa, suggesting open mixed tropical deciduous forest type vegetation in and around the study area. The tree taxa, on the whole, constitute an average sum of 19.78% pollen of the total pollen sum, whereas the contribution of herbs is 43.58% pollen (average sum). The major non-arboreal taxa are Cerealia/Cereal Poaceae (average value; 5.45% pollen) and Poaceae (average value; 4.34%), whereas the cultural plant pollen taxa, such as Amaranthaceae, Caryophyllaceae, Brassicaceae, Cannabis sativa, Alternanthera, and Borreria contribute with an average sum of 11.69% pollen to the total pollen sum. Most of the common forest elements are not recorded because they are insect-pollinated or have low pollen preservation potential, and, hence, the modern pollen assemblages do not directly reflect the actual extant vegetation occupying the landscape of the study area. This bias would also be expected in late Quaternary pollen records of central India and, hence, can provide information of the actual vegetation when analysing fossil pollen samples.

Keywords:

• pollen rain
• surface samples
• tropical deciduous forests

Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to the Director, Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences, Lucknow, India for providing the infrastructure facilities needed to complete the research and also for permission to publish. NP acknowledges the CSIR, New Delhi, India with thanks for providing the fellowship in the form of a JRF (E-certificate No. DEC19C03530). The authors also thank Dr Thomas Denk, Editor, Grana, and the two anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful reviews and suggestions, which helped improve the quality of an earlier version of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/00173134.2023.2280579.

Additional information

Funding

Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences (BSIP), Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh), India – a Department of Science and Technology (DST), Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India, New Delhi, India – funded research organisation, has provided the financial assistance to complete the study.