PALYNOLOGY WEB SITES OF THE MONTH for 2000


The Palynology Web Site of the Month for December, 2000, is Terry Hutter's Forensic Palynology Web Page. Dr. Hutter provides a detailed description of the history of using palynology as a source of information for criminal investigation. Due to the tremendous numbers of pollen grains and spores in the environment, their resistance to decay, and their specific identification; palynology has been used in many ways to help solve crimes. Although most palynologists have performed analyses for police departments, only two people have made this a major part of their palynology careers. [MORE]


The Palynology Web Site of the Month for November, 2000, is The Logan Bee Lab. This very attractive site is maintained by James H. Cane. It makes very good use of frames (warning) and it hosts several great pages including bee illustrations and an extensive list of common garden plants that can be grown to attract bees. There's also a list of the Logan Bee Lab personnel. I particularly like the 'In The News' page, linking to "Bees and Pollination in the Popular Press."

The Palynology Web Site of the Month for October, 2000 is The Pollination Scene. This medium-sized site is primarily focused on the commercial effects of pollination on fruit crops, and it contains some nice examples for melons. It has many links to honey bee keeper pages, pesticides, and floral and bee biology. The page devoted to Alternative Pollinators is very well done. Another page includes pollination information for specific crops. This simply-written site could be a great source of information for educators.

The Palynology Web Site of the Month for September, 2000 is the Pollination Home Page. This extensive page includes links to dozens of private and commercial sites related to the pollination of economic plants and to bee keeping. Recent additions include links to killer (Africanized) bee pages as well as many links to academic sites, and native pollinator sites. It's a great source of information.
Revised 01/01

HON The Palynology Web Site of the Month for August, 2000 is the HON (Health on the Net) Allergy Glossary.
This professionally developed site begins with a simple explanation of pollen allergy with embedded links to authoritative definitions of critical terms such as hypersensitivity
On the main page, a map of the world links, sequentially, to regional pollen calendars. For each region, the monthly importance of tree, grass, and weed pollen are shown, with links to images and descriptions of pollen types for each region. These images are formally cited!
The site's glossary is extensive with (for example) 54 entries under "P". The definitions are brief and related to allergy. Here is the definition for "Pollen": 
Microscopic grains produced by plants in order to reproduce. Each plant has 
a pollinating period. These can vary depending on the plant, climate and region. 
See also the tree, weed and grass pollen pages for more information on the main 
pollens involved in allergic reactions.


The Palynology Web Site of the Month for July, 2000 is the Saint Mary's University, Nova Scotia Pollen and Spore Count page. The palynological consultant for the site is Dr. Peta Mudie, and it is maintained by Josephine Walsh. Tables are provided for pollen concentrations (count/m3) for 4 categories: tree, weed, grass and fungal spores. They are updated daily to weekly. An interesting feature of the site is the pollen forecast, which is based on recent pollen concentrations and weather forecasts. The site includes a brief introduction to airborne pollen and aeroallergy. It is hosted by Saint Mary's University, with the help of the Lung Association of Nova Scotia and Environment Canada.

Tilia The Palynology Web Site of the Month for June, 2000 is the University of Sheffield Centre for Palynology web site maintained by m.g.cooper and c.wellman. This well-constructed site offers a concise description of academic training (M.Sc., M.Phil. and Ph.D) available, and the current research activities of the ten palynologists at the Centre.


The Palynology Web Site of the Month for May, 2000
isn't strictly a palynology site. It's the INQUA Sub-Commission on Data-Handling Methods with file download sites (botiques) at Uppsala, Sweden and Wisconsin USA. But, it's been loaded with palynological goodies by it's proprietors Lou Maher (emeritus) and Keith Bennett. It's easy to get lost, reading through the 45 *FREE* programs (program groups) at the INQUA site, even if you stick just to palynology programs. These range from diagram-plotting programs: 2 TILIA-like programs, and several screen-graphic programs (see Kirchner Marsh below) -- to several graphical correlation programs. Also avialable is "MapPad" a graphical utility that displays lattitude - longitude data (and a lot of data for it), and a statistical package, with a conversion program. Also a self-extracting zip file with pollen data from 293 sites in the North American Pollen Database. These have been converted to the .RAW file format - ready to be run on the various programs available from the site, or easily converted (by yet another program) to Maher's .DAT format which is used by other programs. Most of the programs were written for DOS, but they run fine in a MS window. It's an underutilized resource and a generous donation to palynology.

Red bars are 95% conficence levels - plotted by PLOTLIM.EXE



The Palynology Web Site of the Month for April, 2000
is the palynology website of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.
It includes, in English and Spanish, webpages for the
Aerobiology Group which features and the Paleopalynology Group
which describes the current research of its four paleobotanists in six different Mediterranean regions. And, also includes outlines of their developing programs in



The Palynology Web Site of the Month for March, 2000
is the site of the University of Newcastle, Australia, Pollen Laboratory maintained by Feli Hopf (ggfvlh@cc.newcastle.edu.au)
and Peter Shimeld (ggpws@cc.newcastle.edu.au)
The site includes links to the laboratory's      
Hibiscus
The online pollen reference is extensive and is a valuable contribution to the world pollen flora on the internet. It joins ANU in providing an outstanding coverage of the Southern Hemisphere pollen flora. The graphical search page is an internet inovation, and is well done. It is similar to Judy Lentin's ANGIOKEY program for DOS computers (Lentin et al., 1996).
And, I high highly recommend the descriptions of the Newcastle Lab's fieldwork sites. They're well illustrated, fun to read, and provide a good understanding of the sites for palynologists, and an overview of palynological field work for those just starting to learn about palynology.
Lentin, J.K. Davis, O.K. Muncey, T.S. Piel, K.M. 1996.
Chapter 24, Personal Computers in palynology. vol. 3, p. 961-984 in. Jansonius, J. McGregor, D.C. Palynology: principles and applications. AASP Foundation.


The Palynology Web Site of the Month for February, 2000
is the site of the Australia National University Pollen Laboratory administered by Geoff Hope
This is an online database for the Lab's pollen collection. One can search by
  • Taxonomic Category
    • Family, Genus, Species
  • Morphology
    • Aperture Type, Pollen Class, Shape, Sculpture Pattern
  • Environmental Characteristics
    • Distribution, Habitat, Descriptions
Casurina cristata
Most of these variables are accompanied by a list of possible responses. Once the variables have been selected, click [SUBMIT] to display the information.

Pages of information are then displayed sequentially for the pollen and spores matching the search criteria. Most of the types are Australasian, but there are representatives of other regions as well. Many of the type descriptions include black-and-white illustrations (see example above).

The ANU pollen site is the most ambitious pollen morphology data project I know of on the internet. It joins the APMRU and Uppsala web sites in generously sharing large amounts of information with the palynological community. Hopefully, this is a trend that other major labs will be able to follow.

And, the rapid response time of the ANU server should encourage us all to consider the Internet as research tool.


The Palynology Web Site of the Month for January, 2000 is the site of the Commission Internationale de Microflore du Paléozoique". C.I.M.P. is an international federation of palynologists promoting Palaeozoic palynology. It arranges symposia and working groups which deal with various stratigraphical and taxonomic problems in Palaeozoic palynology. The web site is very well done, with beautiful images of Paleozoic palynomorphs. It has links to The site is maintained by Duncan McLean at the University of Sheffield



Owen Davis