PALYNOLOGY

PALYNOLOGY:the study of palynomorphs: Founded by Lenart Von Post (1916), who helped develop the European Climatic Sequence

Palynomorphs: microscopic, pollen-shaped objects encountered while counting pollen and spores; e.g., leaf hairs, algae, dinoflagelates, foraminifera

Pollen: young male gametophyte of seed plants, responsible for fertilization of the egg.

lands, fertilizes ovule, produces seed

Spores: one-celled reproductive structures, responsible for dissemination of plant.

lands, germinates, produces plant

PALYNOLOGY AND QUATERNARY STUDIES
(Also: Aeroallergy, Melissopalynology, Criminology, Pollination Ecology)

Geochronology
- First occurrences and last occurrences of indicator taxa
- Matching pollen sequence with a standard dated sequence
Climatic and Environmental History
- Indicator Approach: modern ecological limits of plants and plant communities
- Assemblage Approach: co-occurrence a several plant indicate vegetation.
Archeological Palynology
- Environmental setting of habitation
- Environmental impact (fire, agriculture)
- Ethnobotany: use of plants

PRINCIPALS OF PALYNOLOGY

POLLEN ASSEMBLAGE = f(P,D,R,I)

PRODUCTION: pollen is produced in vast quantities, widely distributed
Seasonal and Annual variability

Anemophilous dispersed by wind, produce much pollen
Zoophilous amount of pollen, distributed by animals
Over-representation: pollen present when plant not, or pollen abundance much greater than plant abundance (in vegetation considered)
Under-representation: pollen absent when plant present, or pollen abundance much less than plant abundance

DISPERSAL

Animal Transport Concentration HIGH at plant, or animal's nest
Water Transport in small lake, 80% from stream (Bonny, 1976)
Wind Transport n = Ne^-(d/Δ) (linear model)

Examples: (Wright, 1952)	Δ (m)	N (gr cm²day^-1)	tree height (m)	A/Z
Populus deltoides	2438	4	50	A
Ulmus americana	1433	9	50	Z
Fraxinus americana	54	74	30	A
Pinus edulis	51	49	8	A

PRESERVATION
very resistant to decay

wall of "sporopollenin," which is related to carotenoids
a non-oxidizing depositional environment is necessary
Preservation Classes provide taphonomic information:

IDENTIFICATION: pollen grains are recognizable

have characteristic size, shape, and ornamentation
typically recognizable to genus level

INTERPRETATION OF POLLEN DIAGRAMS:

understand the horizontal and vertical axes
subdivide pollen diagram into zones
identify modern analogs for each zone
interpret vegetation history
interpret climate history

• Vertical Axes:

Depth Time • Horizontal Axes: amount of pollen

PERCENTAGES

divisor (pollen sum) is upland plant pollen

CONCENTRATION

^-3

ACCUMULATION RATE

INFLUX

Influx
(# grains cm^-2 yr^-1)

= concentration X
(# grains cm^-3)

sedimentation rate
(cm yr^-1)

• Pollen Zones: division of the diagram:

Biostratigraphic Zone

Surface Samples provide the calibration of the pollen-vegetation relationship

European Conversion Factors (~ empirical)
Relativized R-values
Regression Analysis: Y = aX + b not linear (Prentice and Webb, 1986)
Similarity - Dissimilarity Measures
Transfer Functions: relationship between pollen percentages and temperature, precipitation

Palynology Readings

HOMEWORK

a. degraded	b. corroded	c. crumpled
d. broken	e. hidden