Editorial Type:
Article Category: Research Article
| Online Publication Date: 04 Nov 2014
Peat bogs as geological archives: Lennart Von Post et al., and the development of quantitative pollen analysis during World War I
Peat bogs as geological archives: Lennart Von Post et al., and the development of quantitative pollen analysis during World War I
Page Range: 187 – 200
In 1916, at the 16th Convention of Scandinavian Naturalists in Kristiania (Oslo), a novel quantitative method for the analysis of postglacial vegetation and climate history was presented. The idea behind the method, later known as pollen analysis, was to utilize peat bogs as geological archives and fossil tree pollen stored in such archives as data. In the historiography of palynology, this lecture by the Swedish geologist Lennart von Post (1884-1951) remains a classic. Pollen from postglacial deposits had indeed been used before, but the approach represented a breakthrough through the launch of the so-called pollen diagram, by which it was possible to summarize and visualize a large amount of data. In the present essay, certain aspects of the intellectual, social and material context of von Post's work are explored. I argue that the aim of the pollen analytical method was to solve Quaternary geological problems rather than biological, and that the method's empirical foundation was connected to an extensive survey of peat bogs, conducted in order to secure energy supply during the First World War. Furthermore, although the method soon won adherents within the scientific community, it is demonstrated in the essay that it did not receive unanimous approval.
Andersson, Johan Gunnar, and Santesson, Henrik. 1913. Förslag från Sveriges Geologiska Undersökning om en utredning af Sveriges torftillgångar. Svenska Mosskulturföreningens Tidskrift 27: 50-59.
Brown, James H. 1991. New approaches and methods in ecology. In: Foundations of Ecology: Classic Papers with Commentaries, edited by Leslie A. Real and James H. Brown, 445-455. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.
Erdtman, Gunnar. 1921. Pollenanalytische Untersuchungen von Torfmooren und marinen Sedimenten in Südwest-Schweden. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell.
Erdtman, Gunnar. 1943. An Introduction to Pollen Analysis. Waltham, MA: Chronica Botany Company.
Erdtman, Gunnar. 1967. Glimpses of Palynology 1916-1966. Review of Palaebotany and Palynology 1: 23-29.
Eriksson, Gunnar. 1978. Kartläggarna: Naturvetenskapens tillväxt och tillämpningar i det industriella genombrottets Sverige 1870-1914. Umeå: Umeå University.
Frängsmyr, Tore. 1976. Upptäckten av istiden: Studier i den moderna geologins framväxt. Stockholm: Lärdomshistoriska Samfundet.
Gavelin, Axel and Post, Lennart von. 1916. En förrådsstatistisk undersökning av torvmarkerna inom Götaland och Svealand utom Dalarna. Stockholm: Swedish Geological Survey.
Hestmark Geir. 1999. Vitenskap og nasjon: Waldemar Christopher Brøgger 1851-1905. Oslo: Aschehoug.
Instruktion för förrättningsmännen vid Sveriges Geologiska Undersöknings förrådsstatistiska torvmarksundersökning. 1918. Stockholm: P.A. Norstedt & Söner.
Lundqvist, Gösta, 1951. Lennart von Post 16.6.1884-11.1.1951. In: Svensk geografisk årsbok 27, 96-106. Lund: Sydsvenska Geografiska Sällskapet.
Lundqvist, Gösta. 1996. Von Post, Ernst Jakob Lennart. In: Svenskt biografiskt lexikon 144, edited by Göran Nilzén, 480-487. Stockholm: Svenskt biografiskt lexikon.
Manten, A. A. 1967. Lennart von Post and the Foundation of Modern Palynology. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 1: 11-22.
Mötet den 2 november 1916. Geologiska Föreningen i Stockholms Förhandlingar 38: 383-394.
Mötet den 6 februari 1919. Geologiska Föreningen i Stockholms Förhandlingar 41: 89-108.
Nordlund, Christer. 2001a. Det upphöjda landet: Vetenskapen, landhöjningsfrågan och kartläggningen av Sveriges förflutna, 1860-1930. Umeå: Royal Skyttean Society.
Nordlund, Christer. 2001b. ‘On going up in the world’: nation, region and the land elevation debate in Sweden. Annals of Science 58: 17-50.
Nordlund, Christer. 2001c. Bildens betydelse: Om vetenskapliga visualiseringar av det postglaciala landskapets utvecklingshistoria. VEST 13: 7-26.
Nordlund, Christer. 2007. Between science and industry: on the establishment, organisation and practices of the Swedish Geological Survey in the Nineteenth Century. Earth Sciences History 26: 127-149.
Oldroyd, David. 2006. Earth Cycles: A Historical Perspective. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press.
Post, Lennart von. 1909. Stratigraphische Studien über einige Torfmoore in Närke. Geologiska Föreningen i Stockholms Förhandlingar 31: 629-706.
Post, Lennart von. 1910. En exakt geologisk tideräkning. Populär naturvetenskaplig revy 1: 11-20.
Post, Lennart von. 1916. Einige südschwedischen Quellmoore. Bulletin of the Geological Institution of the University of Uppsala 15: 219-278.
Post, Lennart von. 1918. Skogsträdpollen i sydsvenska torvmosselagerföljder. In: Forhandlinger ved de skandinaviske naturforskeres 16. Møte i Kristiania den 10-15. Juli 1916, 432-465. Kristiania: Skandinaviska naturforskaremöten.
Post, Lennart von. 1922. Sveriges Geologiska Undersöknings torvinventering och några av dess hittills vunna resultat. Svenska Mosskulturföreningens Tidskrift 36: 1-27.
Post, Lennart von. 1924. Ur de sydsvenska skogarnas regional historia under postarktisk tid. Geologiska Föreningen i Stockholms Förhandlingar 46: 83-128.
Post, Lennart von. 1930. Närke, en landskapsskiss. Svenska Turistföreningens Årsskrift 1930, 23-47. Stockholm: Svenska Turistföreningen.
Post, Lennart von. 1944. Pollenanalytiska perspektiv på Jordens klimathistoria. Ymer, 79-113. Stockholm: The Swedish Anthropological and Geographical Society.
Post, Lennart von. 1946. The prospect for pollen analysis in the study of the Earth's climatic history. New Phytologist 45: 193-217.
Post, Lennart von. 1967. Forest tree pollen in South Swedish peat bog deposits, translated by Margaret Bryan Davis and Knut Fægri. Pollen et Spores 9: 378-401.
Post, Lennart and Granlund, Erik. 1926. Södra Sveriges torvtillgångar 1. Stockholm: Swedish Geological Survey.
Runefelt, Leif. 2008. Torvbubblan 1900-1925. In: Svensk mosskultur: Odling, torvanvändning och landskapets förändring 1750-2000, edited by Leif Runefelt, 329-357. Stockholm: Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry.
Selling, Olof H. 1951. Lennart von Post 16/6 1884-11/1 1951. Svensk botanisk tidskrift 45: 275-296.
Sörlin, Sverker. 2009. The global warming that did not happen: historicizing glaciology and climate change. In: Nature's End: History and the Environment, edited by Sverker Sörlin and Paul Warde, 93-114. Houndmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillian.
Sörlin, Sverker. 2011. The anxieties of a science diplomat: field coproduction of climate knowledge and the rise and fall of Hans Ahlmann's ‘Polar Warming’. In: Klima.Osiris 26, edited by James Rodger Fleming and Vladimir Jankovic, 66-88. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.