Conifer-stomata analysis is an essential part of the palaeoecological toolbox because it allows the determination of the local presence of plant populations with a lower degree of uncertainty than pollen analysis. Although the European postglacial pool of conifer taxa is broad, stomata morphologies for only few taxa have been investigated. Prior stomata morphology studies focused on taxa having wide distribution ranges in central and northern Europe, and stomata morphologies for taxa occurring in southern European and Northern African mountain regions have not yet been described. Here, we present a qualitative assessment of stomata morphologies for 40 taxa from eight genera (Cupressus, Juniperus, Abies, Cedrus, Larix, Picea, Pinus and Taxus) that are present on the European continent and the southern borderlands of the Mediterranean Basin, thereby broadening substantially both the regional and taxonomical coverage of this now 65-years old technique. We found that visual identification of conifer stomata does not allow species-level identifications, supporting the notion of genus-specific stomata morphologies found in prior studies. For each genus, we describe the stomata morphologies taking into account the varying shape of stomata features at different focusing levels. In addition, we provide stop-motion animations (publicly available at http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.7165261) that may be useful tools for microscope analysts who wish to acquaint themselves with conifer-stomata analysis.

中文翻译：

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Werner Trautmann（1953）的开创性研究之后65年，欧洲针叶树气孔分析的新见解

针叶树气孔分析是古生态学工具箱的重要组成部分，因为它可以确定植物种群的局部存在，其不确定性程度低于花粉分析。尽管欧洲冰期后的针叶树类群数量众多，但仅对少数几个类群的气孔形态进行了研究。先前的气孔形态学研究集中于在中欧和北欧具有广泛分布范围的分类单元，并且尚未描述在南欧和北非山区发生的分类单元的气孔形态。在这里，我们提出气孔形态的定性评估为40类群八个属（柏，刺柏，冷杉，雪松，落叶松，云杉，松和红豆杉）技术已经存在于欧洲大陆和地中海盆地的南部边界地区，从而大大拓宽了这种已有65年历史的技术的区域和分类学覆盖范围。我们发现针叶树气孔的目视鉴定不允许进行物种级鉴定，从而支持了先前研究中发现的属特定气孔形态的概念。对于每个属，我们在考虑不同聚焦水平下气孔特征的变化形状的情况下描述气孔形态。此外，我们提供定格动画（可从http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.7165261公开获得），这对于希望熟悉针叶树气孔分析的显微镜分析人员而言可能是有用的工具。