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Imaging flow cytometry for palaeoclimate reconstruction

Nature Reviews Earth & Environment (2026)Cite this article

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The abundance of certain microscopic particulates (for example, pollen or diatoms) in natural climate archives, such as sediment cores, can provide information about past environmental conditions. Traditionally, analysts estimate these abundances by examining the sample under a microscope. This process is often time-consuming, taking a trained analyst 2–10 hours to count 150–500 pollen grains; therefore, a small portion of the total sample material is examined and population estimates are obtained via scaling. Although devices such as slide scanners help to automate this process by digitizing slides, taking 1–3 hours per slide, a fast method to count the particles in an entire sample remains elusive.

In palaeoclimatology, IFC can accelerate the generation of high-resolution records and increase statistical robustness by enabling the analysis of most of the total sample material. Additionally, the method can quantify rare particle types that constitute <1% of the assemblage and reveal subtle changes that would be prohibitively time-consuming to detect manually, expanding the range of detectable climate indicators. For example, IFC could be used to track changes in the abundance of rare, non-native wind-blown pollen species in peat, to reconstruct atmospheric dynamics over the last 10,000 years.

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Acknowledgements

The author thanks A. L. Power, N. Lamichhane, and J. Love for technical support and permitting use of the machine; Z. A. Thomas, P. D. M. Hughes, and M. D. Peaple for supervising the author’s ongoing PhD project; and R. G. Scaife, E. Reeves, and P. R. Morgan for laboratory support. The author also thanks UKRI FLF grant MR/Y016351/1 for financial support.

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  1. School of Geography and Environmental Science, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK

    Edward C. G. Forman

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  1. Edward C. G. Forman
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Correspondence to Edward C. G. Forman.

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Forman, E.C.G. Imaging flow cytometry for palaeoclimate reconstruction. Nat Rev Earth Environ (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-026-00760-8

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