Principal Christine Shaw
In order to study the pollen rain in and around any of the Farm's study areas, it is an essential prerequisite to have a sound library of relevant pollen samples. While carrying out the actual field studies, samples of pollen have been assiduously collected as each plant comes into flower, including periods before and after the actual study interval, and a reference collection of microscope slides has been built up.
In the studies, natural incident pollen is trapped and identified to see if the pollens present reflect the immediate surrounding landscape. A further objective is to see how the presence of specific agricultural activities modifies the background samples. Two such activities are fundamental. The first aim is to see how far pollens from prehistoric cereal types (Potential Yields of Prehistoric Cereals) travel. Early work indicated this could be as little as 500mm! The second is to find out whether pollen might be released during threshing activities in a confined space and be deposited in sufficient quantity in the soil to act as a marker for such activity.
This programme is currently suspended due to lack of personnel.
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Created 01 August 2001 - Updated 10 December 2004