| Abstract: |
Few terrestrial archives offer multi-proxy information with temporal andspatial coverage comparable to marine palaeo-records. Pollen assemblages that are preservedin terrestrial sedimentary systems are, however, one such source. They offer palaeoecologists an archive from which to gain insight into past environmental change and associated vegetation dynamics, typically extending back many thousands of years. Recent preliminary results from the stable isotopic analyses of raw and extracted pollen exina suggest that significant potential exists to utilise palaeo-pollen records as quantitative indicators of past terrestrial palaeoenvironmental change over medium- to long-timescales. Moreover, by combining isotopic analyses with conventional pollen assemblages the information available is greatly enhanced, especially regarding the relative timing of plant community response to external forcing. In this paper, we review the limitednumber of studies that have investigatedthe isotopic analysis of pollen andwe highlight the difficulties and current limitations that are involved. We propose some possible solutions to the methodological issues raised and discuss recent findings of a pilot study of the carbon, hydrogen and oxygen isotopes in raw pollen grains collected from a network of north European sites.
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