Pollen-flora Record Overlapping TOol

Pollen Type Database

Pollen Taxa – User Input

Pollen species/genera/families

Pollen types from textbooks/papers (see References section)

Selected Species

Selected Genera

Selected Families

Selected Beug [1] Pollen Types

Selected Punt [2] Pollen Types

Selected Moore [3] Pollen Types

Selected Andersen [4] Pollen Types

Selected Florenzano et al. [5] Pollen Types

Flora – User Input

Fetch flora via GBIF API

Insert coordinates (decimal degrees) and radius (km) to fetch a flora from GBIF occurrence data:

User Input

  1. "Pollen" section
    2. Manually input the pollen taxa that will undergo the pollen-flora linking procedure.
    1. Pollen morphotypes corresponding to a species, a genus, or a family are input via the buttons in the "Pollen species/genera/families" subsection. The taxa are directly retrieved from the GBIF backbone taxonomy via GBIF API. Any taxon that has a species, genus or family rank and an accepted taxonomic status in GBIF backbone taxonomy may be input this way.
    2. Pollen morphotypes from the currently covered pollen analysis textbooks, manuals and papers are input via the buttons in the "Pollen types from textbooks/papers" section. Each button allows to input a pollen morphotype whose taxonomic composition is described in the reference written on the button. Full references of the textbooks/papers are viewed by clicking the "Pollen Type References" button.
      The taxonomic composition of each pollen morphotype from the currently covered textbooks, manuals and papers is stored in PROTO's internal database, and can be browsed by clicking the "Pollen Type Database" button on the right side menu.

  2. "Flora" section
    3. Input the flora to be matched with the pollen taxa list.
    1. To input a selected flora, prepare a CSV or TSV file with two columns, GBIF ID and species name, and a row for each species in the flora.
      To obtain an empty template file, click the "Export flora" button before inputting or fetching a flora, and compile the downloaded file as described.
    2. To obtain a flora from GBIF occurrence data, insert the decimal degree coordinates of a spot and a radius in km around it. By clicking the "Fetch Flora" button, PROTO will query GBIF API and retrieve the species list of the occurrences within the specified area. The retrieved species list will be displayed in the "Flora" section, and can be exported as a CSV or TSV file.
      The contributing datasets, containing the retrieved observations, are shown above the fetched flora list.
      Warning: caution is advised when using citizen science data, as identifications may not be correct.

Output

  1. "Overlap" section
    2. Compute the matches between each pollen morphotype and the flora with the "Compute matches" button. A log of the pollen-flora overlapping procedure is displayed in the "Operation Log" panel, which can be toggled with the "Show operation log" button.
    The results of the matching procedure will be displayed in the "Match Results" subsection at the bottom of the page. After computing matches, the results can be exported as a CSV file with the "Export results (CSV)" button, or as a detailed PDF document by clicking the "Export Report (Print/PDF)" button. The PDF report contains both the full input and output.
    Each pollen taxon and each species are assigned a score, which is the proportion of matches they are involved in. Please see the paper describing PROTO (Braga et al., in prep.) for additional details about the scores.

Citation Guidelines

Please cite PROTO as follows: Braga, L., & Garusi, L. (2026). PROTO: Pollen-flora Record Overlapping Tool. LifeWatch ERIC. https://doi.org/10.48372/08WE-RG47
Version 3.1 (03 September 2026).

Please respect GBIF's citation guidelines, and cite every dataset that contributed to the fetched flora if you used the feature.

Pollen Types References

[1] Beug, H.-J. (2015). Leitfaden der Pollenbestimmung für Mitteleuropa und angrenzende Gebiete (2nd edn). Verlag Dr. Friedrich Pfeil.

[2] Punt, W., Blackmore, S., Hoen, P. P., Stafford, P. J. (Eds) (1976-2009). The Northwestern European Pollen Flora: Vol. I–IX. Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company.

[3] Moore, P. D., Webb, J. A., Collinson, M. E. (1991). Pollen Analysis (2nd edn). Blackwell Scientific Publications.

[4] Andersen, S. T. (1979). Identification of wild grass and cereal pollen. Danmarks Geologiske Undersøgelse Årbog, 1978, 69-92.

[5] Florenzano, A., Marignani, M., Rosati, L., Fascetti, S., Mercuri, A. M. (2015). Are Cichorieae an indicator of open habitats and pastoralism in current and past vegetation studies? Plant Biosystems, 149(1), 154-165.


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Summary

Match Results