Unlocking the wealth of Dutch pollen data for future research and education

Abstract

Nearly 100 years ago, scientists started analysing fossil pollen and spores in the Netherlands. Since then, an enormous number of fossil pollen datasets have been generated by several researchers at different research institutes. Until recently, most pollen data from the Netherlands was not publicly available. With this communication we like to advertise that this situation has changed and present progress on the Dutch pollen database project. The data are accessible as part of the European Pollen Database in the NEOTOMA palaeoecological database. Now 600 datasets are available, which include pollen counts from the pioneers of pollen analysis as well as recent studies in the Netherlands. We provide a brief history of pollen analysis in the Netherlands to put the origin of these datasets into perspective. The historical overview does not attempt completeness but highlights the main developments throughout the last 100 years of research.