The Global Pollen Database is a public domain, relational database designed for Quaternary fossil-pollen data and modern pollen surface-samples. The database is the result of collaboration among a number of regional database cooperatives, including the European Pollen Database, the North American Pollen Database, the Latin American Pollen Database, the African Pollen Database, and the Pollen Database for Siberia and the Russian Far East. Some smaller database cooperatives have also contributed to it. The database cooperatives have set standards for data quality control and for taxonomic nomenclature and synonymy. The database is a secure archive of palynological data, and it is an essential cyberinfrastructure for paleoenvironmental research. The database facilitates integration, synthesis, and understanding, and it promotes information sharing and collaboration among scientists with different interests and from different countries. Applications range in scale from local studies to global-scale biome mapping and paleoclimatic reconstructions.