Een mossenatlas van indicatorsoorten voor archeobotanisch onderzoek

Samenvatting

Mosses, like vascular plants, are of much interest in archaeobotanical research. They were frequently used by humans for all kinds of purposes and can also be used to characterize environmental factors such as salinity, moisture regime and nutrient availability. Although mosses are frequently found in archaeobotanical contexts, their contribution to characterizing the environ-ment as well as documenting of human exploitation, is rather limited. This can be attributed mainly to difficulties in identification, which is hampered by factors including specific terminology, fragmentation and the absence of diagnostic features such as the generative sporophyte. On the basis of several criteria, 78 mosses have been selected as indicative of environmental characteristics. The identification of these mosses will be facilitated by an atlas using a special key based on leaf features only, with accompanying pictures.