European land-use indicators in North America typically include pollen from Poaceae (grasses), Ambrosia (ragweed), Rumex (dock), and/or Plantago (plantain). A potential complement to this list is Fabaceae (legumes), members of which were introduced by colonists to eastern North America. Historical records show that Trifolium (clover) was widespread from the earliest days of colonization, and several other Eurasian legumes were also introduced for livestock forage by 1840 ce. As an insect-pollinated family with taxa native to the region, Fabaceae is not usually emphasized in palynological reconstructions. However, Plantago is commonly used as an indicator despite being represented by native and insect-pollinated varieties. Likewise, it can be difficult to distinguish between native and introduced Poaceae, yet an increase in grass pollen is generally taken as a disturbance indicator. In order to assess the value of Fabaceae as an indicator of the settlement horizon, the R package neotoma was used to retrieve Fabaceae pollen data from the Neotoma Paleoecology Database to assess regional trends in abundance and for comparison to the usual suite of taxa. Results confirm the possible utility of Fabaceae as an anthropogenic marker in the study area. Two case studies with good chronological control illustrate how all five taxa can be found at the settlement horizon across the study area and over time: a ¹⁴C and ²¹⁰Pb-dated pond in Connecticut anthropogenically impacted by 1700 ce, and a varved lake in Ontario impacted by 1840 ce.

欧洲北美的土地利用指标通常包括禾本科（草），Ambrosia（豚草），Rumex（船坞）和/或Plantago（车前草）的花粉。豆科（豆科）可能是该列表的补充，其成员由殖民者介绍到北美东部。历史记录显示，三叶草（三叶草）是普遍从定植初期，和其他几个欧亚豆类也由1840引入了牲畜饲草CE。作为一个昆虫授粉的家庭，该地区有本地的分类单元，在昆虫学重建中通常不强调豆科。但是，车前草尽管以天然和昆虫授粉品种为代表，但它通常用作指标。同样，很难区分原生禾本科和引进禾本科，但一般将草花粉的增加作为干扰指标。为了评估Fabaceae作为定居水平指标的价值，使用R软件包neotoma从Neotoma古生态数据库中检索Fabaceae花粉数据，以评估区域丰度趋势并将其与通常的分类群进行比较。结果证实了豆科作为人为标记在研究区域中的可能用途。两项具有良好时序控制的案例研究说明了如何在整个研究区域和时间范围内的沉降范围内找到所有五个分类单元：¹⁴ C和²¹⁰康涅狄格州含铅的池塘人为地受到了1700 ce的影响，安大略的变色湖泊受到了1840 ce的影响。