Pollen

Pollen grains that are washed or blown into lakes can accumulate in sediments and provide a record of past vegetation. Different types of pollen in lake sediments reflect the vegetation that was present around the lake and, therefore, the climate conditions favorable for that vegetation.

Obtaining Data at the World Data Center

Listings and search results from this page include data archived by the World Data Center for Paleoclimatology/NOAA Paleoclimatology Program and by the Neotoma Paleoecology Database.

Search Datasets

• Interactive Map
  Select study locations by region, proximity to a point, or text-based attributes.
• Google Earth Map
  Locate and download pollen studies using a Google Earth map interface. Google Earth must be installed to use this search tool.
• Search All Paleoclimatology Data
  Access a free text search of our entire study archive.
• Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Catalog Service for the Web
  ​Harvest paleoclimatology study metadata records using an OGC web service.

Browse Datasets

• List of Pollen Datasets by Title and Investigator
• Pollen Datasets from Our FTP Site
• Bartlein et al. 2010 Pollen-Based Continental Climate Reconstructions at 6 and 21 ka: A Global Synthesis
• Bjune et al. 2008 Northern Fennoscandia Counts and Reconstructions, Text or Excel
• Finsinger et al. 2010 Lago dell'Accesa, Italy, 11.7-4.6KYr Pollen Climate Reconstructions, Text or Excel
• Gajewski 1988 Little Ice Age Summer Temperatures and Annual Precipitation for Northeastern and Northcentral United States
• Nakagawa et al. Lake Suigetsu, Japan Counts and Reconstructions, Text or Excel
• Peros and Gajewski 2008 Nunavut, Canada Counts and Reconstructions, Text or Excel
• Scott 1996 Kuiseb River Basin, Namibia 2000 Year Hyrax Midden Pollen Data, Text or Excel
• Scott 1996 Wonderkrater, South Africa 20,000 Year Pollen Data, Text or Excel
• Viau and Gajewski 2009 Boreal Canada Regional Holocene Climate Reconstructions, Text or Excel
• Viau et al. 2008 Eastern Beringia 25,000 Year Climate Reconstructions, Text or Excel
• Viau et al. 2006 North American July Temperature Reconstructions
• Vegetation Mapping for Eastern North America
• BIOME 6000 African and European 6K Climate and Surface Reconstructions
• Ray and Adams 2001 GIS-based Vegetation Map of the World at the Last Glacial Maximum
• Williams et al. 2004 Pollen Viewer images for Quaternary North America and Gridded Pollen Data

Contributing Data

Investigators who wish to contribute their data to our pollen archive can find information on contributing below. Data and study description information can be contributed by emailing your data to paleo@noaa.gov.

• General Information on Contributing Data

Other Data Archives

Additional sources of pollen data and information.

• Neotoma Paleoecology Database
• Canadian Pollen Database
• European Pollen Database
• International Union for Quaternary Research File Boutique
• PALYHELP Program that Addresses Common Statistical Questions in Palynological and Paleoecological Research
• North American Modern Pollen Data from Whitmore et al. 2005
• North American Packrat Midden Database
• International Plant Names Index (IPNI)