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Pollen Analysis continued ...

During the afternoon session at the University, class members underwent a crash course on how to use a microscope and read pollen diagrams. This was quite an intensive session, and examples of pollen collected from Dartmoor were used as the case study. Having come to terms with names such as Calluna, Salix, Betula, Pinus, Ulmus, Filicales, Fraximus, and Alnus, members were then able to identify the various species under the microscope and to then transfer their findings to three quite separate areas of the moor – the low moor, the high moor, and somewhere in between. Their findings confirmed overall changes in the vegetation over a wide time span and also the difference in species between highland and lowland.

We have much to thank Ann Kelly for. Her knowledge and enthusiasm rubbed off on most of us and we all gained an enormous amount from this day.

Janet Cambridge


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