Pollen-chemistry variations along elevation gradients and their implications for a proxy for UV-B radiation in the plant-fossil record

1. Research indicates that the phenolic compounds (e.g. para-coumaric acid) found within pollen grains may be useful as a proxy to reconstruct the UV-B radiation received at the Earth’s surface in the geological past. However, application of this method to the plant-fossil record currently relies on a series of untested assumptions surrounding the ecological factors driving the response of pollen grains in the contemporary environment.

2. Here, we investigate the relationship of Pinus spp. pollen to UV-B radiation using individuals of five populations sampled from three elevation gradients across Europe. We develop a novel radiation-modelling approach, which allows us to estimate the UV-B-radiation dose of individual trees, weighted by different UV-B action spectra. We then use linear mixed-effects modelling to investigate: (i) whether the variations in UV-B-absorbing compounds in Pinus pollen are best described by models using coarser (subgenus) or finer (population) taxonomic level...