Pollen Assemblage
Definition
The full complement of pollen and spore types recovered together from a sample, characterised by species identity and relative abundance. Assemblages are more informative than single-species identifications because the combination reflects a specific habitat and season.
- Field
- Forensic palynology
- Definition
- Full set of pollen and spore types in one sample
- Recorded as
- Species identity and relative abundance
- Value over single species
- Reflects a specific habitat and season combined
- Used for
- Placing a person, object, or sample at a location or time
Common questions
Why is an assemblage more useful to investigators than identifying just one pollen species?+
Many individual plant species have wide geographic ranges, but the specific combination and ratio of several species together, including any exotic or ornamental plants, narrows the possible source location and season far more precisely than any single species could alone.
Can a pollen assemblage indicate when, not just where, a crime occurred?+
Yes, because different plants release pollen during different, often narrow, flowering windows, so an assemblage dominated by species that flower only in a particular month can constrain the likely timeframe a sample or item was exposed outdoors.
What can compromise the reliability of a pollen assemblage as evidence?+
Contamination during collection or storage, pollen's ability to travel long distances by wind, and incomplete regional reference collections for comparison can all weaken conclusions, so palynologists document collection method and compare against a well-characterised local reference set.
Related terms
- Diatom
- A microscopic alga with a silica cell wall (frustule) bearing species-specific surface ornamentation. Diatoms are abundant in freshwater, marine, and brackish environments....
- Forensic Palynology
- The application of pollen and spore analysis to legal investigations. A forensic palynologist identifies the species composition of pollen assemblages from crime-scene...
- Grave-Fill Inversion
- The mixing or reversal of pollen stratigraphy caused by digging and backfilling a clandestine grave. Older, deeper pollen types brought to the...
- Plant Macrofossil
- A plant fragment large enough to be seen with the naked eye or low magnification: leaves, seeds, bark pieces, root fragments. Macrofossils...
- Pollen Stratigraphy
- The analysis of pollen assemblages at different depth horizons within the grave fill to establish a seasonal or annual chronology. A pollen...
- Provenance
- The documented origin of a media file: the device that captured it, the time and location of capture, the chain of custody...
- Seasonal Marker
- A pollen type with a well-defined flowering season, used to estimate the time of year at which a person or object was...
- Secondary Transfer
- The movement of a glass fragment from a primary surface (which contacted the broken glass) to a secondary surface (which contacted the...
- Transfer Assemblage
- The pollen recovered from clothing, a vehicle, or a body that reflects the environments the item or person has been in through...
- Wood Anatomy
- The microscopic cellular structure of wood, including vessel arrangement, ray type, fibre dimensions, and parenchyma distribution. These features are species-specific and form...
Explained in these topics
- Botanical Evidence: An Overview
- Pollen as Trace and Provenance EvidenceThe full suite of pollen and spore taxa found in a sample, expressed as counts or percentages. Each assemblage reflects the vegetation and deposition history o...