Studies of Modem and Holocene Pollen Precipitation in Southeastern Turkey

(p. 38) Altogether 38 spectra were obtained for surface samples taken in the steppe and forest regions of southeastern Turkey. The spectra from the steppe and the outer deforested area show high herbaceous percentages, but the frequencies for Artemisia , Plantago and Chenopodiaceae are low. In these samples Pinus values are higher than those for Quercus , presumably because of a better long-distance transport of pine pollen. In the spectra from the forest region Quercus generally shows fairly high values, but oak pollen frequencies can be low in areas where the forest suffered serious destruction. In relation to Quercus , most other trees and shrubs such as Pistacia , Acer , and Paliurus are under-represented in the pollen rain. The pollen percentages of Juniperus are also smaller than the share of this species in the vegetation would suggest. The pollen diagram obtained for a core from a lake near Golbasi indicates that about 3000 years ago a fairly undisturbed forest, in whick oak, juniper, and pistachio played an important part, covered the higher grounds in that area. Changes in the upland vegetation which took place after about 2850 B.P. would have been caused by man. The results of a palynological study of the sediment in a small basin near Bozova, in the steppe region, suggest that during the last 2500 years no important changes took place in the vegetation pattern in the vicinity of this site.