Model projections of future climate change require that coupled climate-vegetation models are developed and validated, i.e. these models should be able to reproduce past climate and vegetation change. Records of pollen deposited in lake bottoms and peat bogs can provide the information needed to validate these models. The aim of this thesis was i) to explore the modern relationships between pollen and vegetation in northern and temperate China and estimate pollen productivity of major plant taxa, and ii) to use the results of i) to produce the first reconstruction of plant cover in China over the last 10 000 years for the purpose of climate modelling. A study of the modern pollen-vegetation-climate relationships was performed in northwestern China (Paper I). Pollen productivity for 18 major plants of cultural landscapes in central-eastern China was estimated (Paper II). Based on a synthesis and evaluation of all existing estimates of pollen productivity in the study region, a standard dataset of pollen productivity for 31 plant taxa is proposed (Paper III). This dataset was used to achieve pollen-based REVEALS reconstructions of plant cover over the last 10 000 years in 35 regions of northern and temperate China (Paper IV). The major findings can be summarized as follows. Paper I: Annual precipitation (Pann) is the major climatic factor influencing pollen assemblages, followed by July precipitation (PJul). The shared effect of combinations of two climatic factors explains a larger portion of the variation in pollen data than individual variables. Paper II: Of the 16 reliable pollen productivities estimated, the estimates for 8 taxa are new, Castanea, Cupressaceae, Robinia/Sophora, Anthemis type/Aster type, Cannabis/Humulus, Caryophyllaceae, Cruciferae, and Galium type. Trees have in general larger pollen productivity than herbs. Paper III: Of the total 31 taxa for which estimates of pollen productivity are available in China, 13 taxa have more than 1 value. All or most of these values are similar for Artemisia, Cyperaceae, Larix, Quercus and Pinus. Eight taxa have very variable estimates. Paper IV: The REVEALS plant percentage-cover strongly differs from the pollen percentages, and they provide new important insights on past changes in plant composition and vegetation dynamics.

The major objective of this thesis was to produce descriptions of the land vegetation-cover in Europe for selected time windows of the Holocene (6000, 3000, 500, 200, and 50 calendar years before present (BP=1950)) that can be used in climate modelling. Land vegetation is part of the climate system; its changes influence climate through biogeophysical and biogeochemical processes. Land use such as deforestation is one of the external forcings of climate change.  Reliable descriptions of vegetation cover in the past are needed to study land cover-climate interactions and understand the possible effects of present and future land-use changes on future climate. We tested and applied the REVEALS (Regional Estimates of VEgetation Abundance from Large Sites) model to estimate past vegetation in percentage cover over Europe using pollen records from lake sediments and peat bogs. The model corrects for the biases of pollen data due to intraspecific differences in pollen productivity and pollen dispersion and deposition in lakes and bogs. For the land-cover reconstructions in Europe and the Baltic Sea catchment we used 636 (grouped by 1˚x1˚ grid cells) and 339 (grouped by biogeographical regions) pollen records, respectively. The REVEALS reconstructions were performed for 25 tree, shrub and herb taxa. The grid-based REVEALS reconstructions were then interpolated using a set of statistical spatial models. We show that the choice of input parameters for the REVEALS application does not affect the ranking of the REVEALS estimates significantly, except when entomophilous taxa are included. We demonstrate that pollen data from multiple small sites provide REVEALS estimates that are comparable to those obtained with pollen data from large lakes, however with larger error estimates. The distance between the small sites does not influence the results significantly as long as the sites are at a sufficient distance from vegetation zone boundaries. The REVEALS estimates of open land for Europe and the Baltic Sea catchment indicate that the degree of landscape openness during the Holocene was significantly higher than previously interpreted from pollen percentages. The relationship between Pinus and Picea and between evergreen and summer-green taxa may also differ strongly whether it is based on REVEALS percentage cover or pollen percentages. These results provide entirely new insights on Holocene vegetation history and help understanding questions related to resource management by humans and biodiversity in the past. The statistical spatial models provide for the first time pollen-based descriptions of past land cover that can be used in climate modelling and studies of land cover-climate interactions in the past.

The aim is to gather pollen sequences and derive from them synthetic information on past species distribution and Holocene vegetation history. Lonicera nigra was selected as a model taxa. The phylogeographic hypothesis that its Alpine and Carpathian populations survived the LGM in separate refugia is supported only by the Late-Glacial record. This shrub migrated rapidly from southern to central Europe during the warm oscilations of the Late Glacial. The synthesis of vegetation history was produced by applying the REVEALS model, which can filter out following factors influencing the relationship between pollen and vegetation: pollen taphonomy, pollen productivity and pollen dispersal. It was necessary to calculate and test those parameters, so the goals were partly methodical. Pollen productivity estimates are calculated within the Relevant Source Area of Pollen, which is influenced by vegetation structure. Subsequent validation of those values in the area of the REVEALS model 10000 km2 and selection of additional values for lacking taxa created the best set of parameters for the study area. The source fossil dataset for purposes of this synthesis is the newly developed Czech Quaternary Pollen database (PALYCZ). Non-direct multivariate analysis of pollen percentages including all taxa revealed a similarity...