Pollen sieve

The resistant structure of pollen membranes gives them the ability to fossilize.
Reconstructing past vegetation and its evolution can be based on the pollen content of sediments.
As vegetation evolution is linked to climate, it becomes possible to determine ancient climatic variations.

This approach can be practically approached using a pollen sieve: current pollen is trapped in the small leaves that make up the mosses.
Identifying pollen extracted from mosses collected in different areas allows for the reconstruction of the plant environment.

In peat bogs, fossilized pollen is directly accessible and can be compared with existing databases.