Silicon (Si) is the second‐most abundant element in the earth's crust. In the pedosphere,
however, huge spans of Si contents occur mainly caused by Si redistribution in soil profiles …

Although silicon occurs in all plants, it is an element that is largely overlooked by many plant
ecologists and most plant-related research on silicon comes from agronomy, archaeology …

Phytoliths, microscopic plant silica bodies, are often preserved in modern and fossil soils
and sediment, as well as in archaeological contexts. They record unique characteristics of …

The main objective of this paper is to provide researchers that investigate fossil phytolith
assemblages and model/data comparisons a new tool for estimating C3/C4 grass …

Taphonomy is commonly described as “the study of the environmental conditions affecting
the preservation of animal or plant remains”. This broad definition is usually understood to …

Aim This study calibrates the relationship between phytolith indices, modern vegetation
structure, and a climate parameter (AET/PET, ie the ratio of annual actual evapotranspiration …

We present a synthesis of modern phytolith studies from Africa, to infer the potential and
limitations of phytolith assemblages to reconstruct vegetation and tree cover density. The …

The aim of the study is to calibrate the phytolith index of tree cover density, D/P (the ratio of
ligneous dicotyledons phytoliths (D) over Poaceae phytoliths (P)) with Leaf Area Index (LAI) …

Phytoliths are silica casts of plant cells, created within and between living tissues across
almost all plant clades. Because they are abundant, durable and distinctive, phytoliths are …

Soil phytoliths have been widely applied to reconstruct vegetational history. To date,
however, the transport behaviour of phytoliths in soil is poorly understood, causing …