Seeds and Fruits of Aquatic Plants of Northern Europe - A Handbook

This handbook is a practical guide to the identification and interpretation of aquatic plant remains recovered from sediments. These remains, or macrofossils, can be seeds or fruits or other plant organs such as leaves or stems. The main body of the handbook is made up of a series of fact sheets for each aquatic plant taxon and its macrofossil type(s) known for northern Europe. Many aquatic species have distributions beyond Europe, so the handbook has a world-wide application. Each taxon is illustrated by about 3 photographs of seeds, fruits, and sometimes vegetative parts, together with notes on life form and ecology, present distribution (with a link to a distribution map), and late-Quaternary history if known. In addition to the descriptions, the handbook provides introductory chapters about aquatic ecosystems, palaeolimnology, and the nature and importance of plant macrofossil analysis. These will inform readers about the opportunities and limitations of plant macrofossil identification for research in palaeoecology, archaeology, and freshwater biology. 

List of contents

1 Introduction.- 2 Aquatic Ecosystems and Their Aquatic Plants.- 3 Palaeolimnology.- 4 Plant Macrofossil Analysis.- 5 Species Accounts.

About the author

Hilary H. Birks
is a palaeoecologist and palaeolimnologist with long experience of using plant macrofossils. She employs their unique properties to reconstruct past ecosystems and environments and thus the responses and dynamics of vegetation change to changing climates and environmental conditions, including the impact of human activities, on wetland and terrestrial ecosystems. Past vegetation dynamics, beyond the time frame of modern and historical ecology, form a model for changes that might be expected in the future as a response to our rapidly changing climate and loss of natural habitats. She has conducted her research in localities across the Northern Hemisphere, with special emphasis on northern and arctic ecosystems. Her main focus is on late-glacial and Holocene vegetational history and climate reconstruction, firstly in Scotland and subsequently in Norway. From these activities and interests other projects have arisen, on the Holocene of Svalbard, Greenland, and Tibet, the full-glacial vegetation or ‘mammoth steppe’ in Alaska and Siberia, the history of aquatic plants in northern Finland, and recent lake eutrophication and pollution in Minnesota USA, North Africa, and the UK. To increase the interpretive value of plant macrofossils, she has evaluated the modern representation of plants by their remains in lake surface sediments in USA and UK. She has combined plant macrofossil analyses from lake sediments with studies of other organisms and environmental parameters in multiproxy studies since 1970.

Carl D. Sayer
is a Professor in Limnology and Freshwater Ecology in the Department of Geography at University College London where he has worked for almost 30 years. His research spans the fields of restoration ecology, palaeoecology, and landscape ecology and focuses on sites in eastern England. He is interested in the use of plant macrofossils for inferring centennial-scale ecological change in lakes and ponds and in the degree to which sedimentary macro-remains effectively represent contemporary and past aquatic plant communities. He has supervised a great many UCL PhD and MSc projects utililsing plant macrofossils. He teaches courses involving macrofossils and aquatic botany. He was inspired to explore the field of plant macrofossil analysis after he assisted in Hilary Birks’s “Introduction to plant macrofossils” short course at UCL (1995-2009). 

Richard E. Walton
has a wide range of botanical research interests. He has a background in Plant Biology (BSc), Environmental Science (MSc), and Conservation biology and Palaeoecology (PhD - University College London). As part of his PhD, he studied changes to macrophyte assemblages in English farm ponds through time using plant macrofossils, and the impacts of habitat management on plant-pollinator communities at these ponds. He has reconstructed flood histories and anthropogenic impacts on tropical river delta lakes in South and Southeast Asia as a part of the Living Deltas Research Hub. His current research looks at recovery pathways in global lacustrine ecosystems that have undergone eutrophication. His main research interest is reconstructing past wetland environments and ecological regimes using the analyses of plant macrofossils as well as other palaeoecological relics found in the sediment record. The results enhance the understanding of changes in aquatic systems as a way to lead conservation efforts.

Summary

This handbook is a practical guide to the identification and interpretation of aquatic plant remains recovered from sediments. These remains, or macrofossils, can be seeds or fruits or other plant organs such as leaves or stems. The main body of the handbook is made up of a series of fact sheets for each aquatic plant taxon and its macrofossil type(s) known for northern Europe. Many aquatic species have distributions beyond Europe, so the handbook has a world-wide application. Each taxon is illustrated by about 3 photographs of seeds, fruits, and sometimes vegetative parts, together with notes on life form and ecology, present distribution (with a link to a distribution map), and late-Quaternary history if known. In addition to the descriptions, the handbook provides introductory chapters about aquatic ecosystems, palaeolimnology, and the nature and importance of plant macrofossil analysis. These will inform readers about the opportunities and limitations of plant macrofossil identification for research in palaeoecology, archaeology, and freshwater biology. 

Product details

• Authors: Hilary H Birks, Hilary H. Birks, Carl D Sayer, Carl D. Sayer, Richard E Walton, Richard E. Walton
• Publisher: Springer, Berlin
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 17.03.2026
• EAN: 9783032041692
• ISBN: 978-3-0-3204169-2
• No. of pages: 353
• Illustrations: XV, 353 p. 353 illus., 325 illus. in color.
• Series: Developments in Paleoenvironmental Research
• Subjects: Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Geosciences > Palaeontology; Ökologie, Biosphäre, Umweltarchäologie, paleontology, Paleoecology, Environmental archaeology, Palaeoecology, Aquatic ecosystems, Plant macrofossils, Palaeolimnology