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4 Palynological research in the Vosges
Mountains: a historical overview
Figs. 4 and 5 and table 1 show the palynologi-
cally analysed sites from the Vosges Mountains
known to the present author.
The first palynological analyses from the area
originate from the Champ-du-Feu mire and were
published around 85 years ago ( Dubois & Hatt
1930a). In a publication of the same year, Dubo-
is & Hatt (1930b) also refer to investigations of
the Tourbière de la Maxe and of Sutt (Soutte),
however without presenting the pollen diagrams.
Seven years later three further papers appeared
(D ubois & Dubois 1937, Hatt 1937, O berdorfer
1937). In those early days, palynological research
focussed on forest history, and pollen diagrams
displayed only few pollen types attributable to
trees and incidentally some types attributable to
herbs. The sample interval was generally large,
resulting in a low temporal resolution. Excep-
tions are the diagrams from the Ohnenheim and
Urbis sites by O berdorfer (1937), which partly
have a resolution of 2-5 cm. Although the value
of these early pollen diagrams seems somewhat
restricted compared to the present-day scientific
standard, they provide valuable information on
phases of mire development.
In the 1940-ies, six mires were studied by a re-
search group headed by Franz Firbas, of which
the results were published after World War II ( F ir-
bas et al. 1948). This research represents a ma-
jor breakthrough in the development of palyno-
logical science: a considerable amount of pollen
types, including types produced by herbaceous
plant taxa, was presented with a high temporal
resolution. The pollen curves were displayed as
single curves next to each-other in contrast to the
general use at that time of crossing and overlap-
ping lines. This resulted in a clear picture of re-
gional vegetation development since the Weich-
selian Lateglacial. For the first time, Firbas used
his concepts of pollen zones which he shortly
afterwards described elaborately in his books on
the forest development north of the Alps ( Firbas
1949, 1952). Detailed descriptions of sediment/
sedentate layers and their macrofossil content
provide additionally valuable data on local mire
development. In this sense, the publication of F ir-
bas et al. (1948) was probably the most advanced
palynological study of its time.
From the nineteenfifties, no publications on the
vegetation history in the Vosges Mountains are
known to the present author. In the following de-
cades various palynological studies appeared.
The work of Lemée (1963) provides many scientific
statements that are, however, hardly supported by
his pollen diagrams. Dresch et al. (1966) present
four pollen diagrams from the Grand Ballon regi-
on that allow a good reconstruction of the Holo-
cene vegetation history. The study of T eunissen &
S choonen (1973) presents a high-resolution pol-
len diagram covering the Weichselian Lateglacial.
Durand & Guillet (1966) – although presenting re-
lative coarse pollen diagrams – bring the research
of vegetation history of the Vosges Mountains to
a higher level by introducing the use of radiocar-
bon dates. Other research by Guillet (1968, 1970,
1971a/b) concentrates on the development of ter-
restrial soils. Due to differences in pollen preser-
vation processes, it is difficult to directly compare
pollen diagrams of soils with those of peat (cf.
Munaut 1967, Havinga 1974, A ndersen 1986), but,
on the other hand, soil profiles provide valuable
information on local vegetation history of dry soils
that cannot be inferred from the regional pollen
deposition in the centres of large wetlands.
In 1966, an interdisciplinary study group (“Werk-
groep Vogezen”) from Utrecht University started a
long-term palynological research project in order
to study vegetation history at different altitudes and
indifferent landscape units (Janssen 1974, Janssen
et al. 1985). The research concentrated on a ca. 70
km long and 30-40 km wide belt across the moun-
tains, yet also some sites further to the north have
been investigated. Under the motto “The present is
the key to the past”, the project also included the
study of present-day vegetation in order to better
understand and interpret fossil pollen sequences.
An important tool was the analysis of palynological
surface samples from various vegetation types on
a micro- (small typical areas) and a macro-scale
(the various vegetation types of the complete
mountain range) (Janssen et al. 1974, Tamboer-Van
den H euvel & Janssen 1976, Janssen 1981, De Valk
1981, E delman 1985, Kalis 1985). Also geomor-
phology and other abiotic landforming parame-
ter were taken into account (Salomé 1968, 1970,
1973, 1974, Salomé & Weiss 1970). Three major
PhD studies dealt with the present-day and past
vegetation of the Kastelberg area (D e Valk 1981),
the Goutte Loiselot mire (E delman 1985) and the
Foret de la Bresse (K alis 1985), whereas a fourth
PhD-thesis described in great detail actual mire
vegetation (Bick 1985). Apart from these, a large
variety of smaller publications appeared (table 1).
Also a number of MSc-theses from Utrecht Univer-
sity deal with the vegetation history of the Vosges