Citation:

s00334-012-0390-y

Name: Validated sample ages from 823 EPD sites
Published: 2013
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

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Abstract:

The number of well-dated pollen diagrams in Europe has increased considerably over the last 30 years and many of them have been submitted to the European Pollen Database (EPD). This allows for the construction of increasingly precise maps of Holocene vegetation change across the continent. Chronological information in the EPD has been expressed in uncalibrated radiocarbon years, and most chronologies to date are based on this time scale. Here we present new chronologies for most of the datasets stored in the EPD based on calibrated radiocarbon years. Age information associated with pollen diagrams is often derived from the pollen stratigraphy itself or from other sedimentological information. We reviewed these chronological tie points and assigned uncertainties to them. The steps taken to generate the new chronologies are described and the rationale for a new classification system for age uncertainties is introduced. The resulting chronologies are fit for most continental-scale questions. They may not provide the best age model for particular sites, but may be viewed as general purpose chronologies. Taxonomic particularities of the data stored in the EPD are explained. An example is given of how the database can be queried to select samples with appropriate age control as well as the suitable taxonomic level to answer a specific research question.

Coverage:

Median Latitude: 55.771160 * Median Longitude: 20.005658 * South-bound Latitude: 31.108333 * West-bound Longitude: -20.609722 * North-bound Latitude: 76.668333 * East-bound Longitude: 60.750000

Date/Time Start: 1919-09-15T00:00:00 * Date/Time End: 2005-06-15T00:00:00

Comment:

The tables Entity, Control_P, EpdAgesAll, EpdAgesCut contain the information on how the age-depth relationship was derived as well as the ages themselves for 823 sites stored in the European Pollen Database (EPD). Each table can be individually linked to a downloadable version of the database via the identification number, which corresponds to the entity number in the EPD. The table EpdAgesCut provides the final product and should be used for database queries. Users should be aware however, that this table may lack ages for samples towards the base or top of individual records (see the paper for explanations). A complete set of sample ages for all 823 sites is provided in the table EpdAgesAll, including unlikely extrapolated ages and other problems that were identified (see the paper for explanations). The Entity table contains information on the location of the site which is a duplication of the data stored in the EPD based on the database version of the 2012-08-02. The type of age model used, (1) linear or (2) spline as well as depth below or above which ages were omitted is also stored in this table. The table Control_P contains the chronological information that is the base for the individual age-depth relationships.

License:

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC-BY-3.0)

Size:

4 datasets

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Datasets listed in this publication series

Giesecke, T; Davis, BAS; Brewer, S et al. (2013): (3 Table Control_P) Chronological information for the individual age-depth relationships. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.804606
Giesecke, T; Davis, BAS; Brewer, S et al. (2013): (2 Table Entity) Positions of cores. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.804591
Giesecke, T; Davis, BAS; Brewer, S et al. (2013): (4 Table EpdAgeAll) Sample ages including unlikely extrapolated ages and other problems that were identified. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.804595
Giesecke, T; Davis, BAS; Brewer, S et al. (2013): (1 Table EpdAgeCut) Sample ages, the final product. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.804596