Representational bias in phytoliths from modern soils of central North America: Implications for paleovegetation reconstructions

► Phytoliths are an important tool for paleovegetation reconstructions. ► It is unclear how accurately soil phytolith assemblages represent source vegetation. ► We use modern soil assemblage-vegetation comparison to estimate phytolith bias. ► In temperate systems there is an assemblage bias that is linked to soil order. ► Quantitative correction factors are proposed to recalibrate phytolith data.