Pollen Analysis - Pollen And Spores, Dating Palynological Samples, Pollen Analysis
plant palynology fossil character
Pollen analysis, or palynology, is the study of fossil pollen (and to a lesser degree, plant spores) preserved in lake sediments, bog peat, or other matrices. Usually, the goal of palynology is to reconstruct the probable character of local plant communities in the historical past, as inferred from the abundance of plant species in dated potions of the pollen record. Palynology is a very important tool for interpreting historical plant communities, and the speed and character of their response to changes in environmental conditions, especially climate change. Pollen analysis is also useful in archaeological and ecological reconstructions of the probable habitats of ancient humans and wild animals, and in determining what they might have eaten. Pollen analysis is also sometimes useful in exploration for resources of fossil fuels.
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Pollen is a fine powdery substance, consisting of microscopic grains containing the male gametophyte of gymnosperms (conifers and their relatives) and angiosperms (monocotyledonous and dicotyledonous flowering plants). Pollen is designed for long-distance dispersal from the parent plant, so that fertilization can occur among individuals, in preference to self-fertilization. (However, many species …
Palynologists must understand the temporal context of their samples, which means that they must be dated. A number of methods are available to palynologists for dating their samples of mud or peat. Most commonly used in typical palynological studies is a method known as radiocarbon dating, which takes advantage of the fact that once an organism dies and is removed from the direct influence of the …
Palynologists typically collect cores of sediment or peat, date layers occurring at various depths, and extract, identify, and enumerate samples of the fossil pollen grains that are contained in the layers. From the dated assemblages of fossil pollen, palynologists develop inferences about the nature of the forests and other plant communities that may have occurred in the local environment of the …
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