Quaternary Environments Pollen Analysis

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Quaternary EnvironmentsPollen Analysis
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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

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Basis of Pollen Analysis

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

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Pollen

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

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Treatment

• Hydrochloric Acid
• Sulfuric Acid
• Hydrofluoric Acid
• Acetic Anhydride
• Pollen Solution
• Lycopodium Control

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Pollen Prep and Microscope Work
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Pollen Morphology
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Catchment

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

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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

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Lake Coring
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Sediment Core
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Other Factors that Affect Pollen Dispersal

• Fire
• Insect infestation
• Plant successional changes
• Season of pollination
• Interference by humans

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Under and Over Represented Pollen Types
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Dispersal Model
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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

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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.

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Vegetation versus Modern Pollen
Hickory
Oak
Ash
Elm
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Callibration

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

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Pollen Diagram
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Pollen Diagram from Carp Lake, Oregon
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Temporal Reconstruction of Temperature and
Precipitation
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Spatial Reconstruction of Vegetation
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Isochrones of Vegetation Migration
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Altitudinal Changes in vegetation zones in the
Eastern Cordillera of Columbia
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