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Quaternary Environments Pollen Analysis

Quaternary Environments Pollen Analysis. Pollen Analysis. Millions of tons of organic material is dispersed into the atmosphere by flowering plants and cryptogams every year Sedimentation rate is important for fine resolution. Basis of Pollen Analysis. Distinct morphology of pollen grains

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Quaternary Environments Pollen Analysis

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  1. Quaternary EnvironmentsPollen Analysis

  2. Pollen Analysis • Millions of tons of organic material is dispersed into the atmosphere by flowering plants and cryptogams every year • Sedimentation rate is important for fine resolution

  3. Basis of Pollen Analysis • Distinct morphology of pollen grains • Produced in vast quantities by wind-pollinated plants • Extremely resistant to decay • Reflect natural vegetation

  4. Pollen • 10 – 150 microns • Exine – Chemically resistant outer layer • Morphology • Shape • Size • Sculpturing • Number of apertures

  5. Treatment • Hydrochloric Acid • Sulfuric Acid • Hydrofluoric Acid • Acetic Anhydride • Pollen Solution • Lycopodium Control

  6. Pollen Prep and Microscope Work

  7. Pollen Morphology

  8. Catchment • Preservation sites • Lakes • Bogs • Estuaries • Alluvial deposits • Marine sediments • Glacial ice • Archaeological sites • Packrat middens • Coprolites

  9. Scale • Basin size determines catchment area • Based on dispersal distance • Based on pollen productivity • Different spatial and temporal scales of pollen change are driven by different processes

  10. Lake Coring

  11. Sediment Core

  12. Other Factors that Affect Pollen Dispersal • Fire • Insect infestation • Plant successional changes • Season of pollination • Interference by humans

  13. Under and Over Represented Pollen Types

  14. Dispersal Model

  15. Problems • Differential production • Wind versus insect or animal pollinated • Differential preservation • Populus pollen disintegrates easily • Number of pollen grains to count • Greater than 200 • Bioturbation

  16. Biostratigraphic Zones • Biostratigraphic Zone: "A biostratigraphic zone is defined solely by the fossils it contains, without reference to lithology, inferred environment, or concepts of time." Code of Stratigraphic Nomenclature. Bull.Amer.Assoc.Petrol.Geol. 45(5):645-665.

  17. Vegetation versus Modern Pollen Hickory Oak Ash Elm

  18. Callibration • Compare pollen assemblages to known temperature and precipitation • Develop transfer functions to reconstruct past climate

  19. Pollen Diagram

  20. Pollen Diagram from Carp Lake, Oregon

  21. Temporal Reconstruction of Temperature and Precipitation

  22. Spatial Reconstruction of Vegetation

  23. Isochrones of Vegetation Migration

  24. Altitudinal Changes in vegetation zones in the Eastern Cordillera of Columbia

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