Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-45l2p Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T03:53:51.576Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Interpretation of Floodplain Pollen in Alluvial Sediments from an Arid Region1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Allen M. Solomon ,
T. J. Blasing  and
J. A. Solomon
Allen M. Solomon
Affiliation:
Environmental Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37830
T. J. Blasing
Affiliation:
Environmental Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37830
J. A. Solomon
Affiliation:
Environmental Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37830
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Pollen was collected from modern alluvium and from the atmosphere to document the nature and amount of paleoenvironmental information reflected by alluvial pollen chronologies. Results indicate that pollen in alluvium is a homogeneous mixture derived almost entirely from the floodplain itself. The few pollen grains derived from nonfloodplain plant communities and preserved in alluvial sediments are so well mixed that their frequencies no longer reflect the geographic distribution of the specific plant communities in which they originated. In contrast, the abundance of alluvial pollen grains, derived from the major floodplain taxa (Chenopodiineae, Ambrosia type), varies with summer and winter climate. This annual variation is preserved in alluvial pollen assemblages through a combination of processes within sedimentation basins involving discontinuous deposition events and mechanical pollen degradation. The high-frequency, wide-amplitude pollen variance in alluvial pollen assemblages contrasts with the low-frequency, narrow-amplitude pollen variance in sediments of lakes and ponds. The slight geographic variance in alluvial pollen assemblages, in contrast to the large variance in soil pollen, allows use of alluvial pollen to infer climate throughout the watershed in which pollen is sampled.

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 18 , Issue 1 , July 1982 , pp. 52 - 71
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

1

Research supported by National Science Foundation, Ecosystem Studies Program, under Interagency Agreement DEB-72-26722 with the U.S. Department of Energy, under Contract W-7405-eng-26 with the Union Carbide Corporation. Publication 1894, Environmental Sciences Division, ORNL.

References

Adam, D.P., Mehringer, P.J. Jr.. 1975. Modern pollen samples: An analysis of subsamples. U.S. Geological Survey Journal of Research 3. 733–736.Google Scholar
Antevs, E., (1955). Geological-climate dating in the west. American Antiquity 20. 317–335.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brush, G.S., Brush, L.M., (1972). Transport of pollen in a sediment laden channel: A laboratory study. American Journal of Science 272. 359–381.Google Scholar
Cross, A.T., Thompson, G.G., Zaitzeff, J.B., (1966). Source and distribution of palynomorphs in bottom sediments, southern part of Gulf of California. Marine Geology 4. 467–524.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cushing, E.J., (1964). Redeposited pollen in late-Wisconsin pollen spectra from East-Central Minnesota. American Journal of Science 262. 1075–1088.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cushing, E.J., (1967). Evidence for differential pollen preservation in late Quaternary sediments in Minnesota. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 4. 87–101.Google Scholar
Davis, M.B., (1967). Pollen deposition in lakes as measured by sediment traps. Geological Society of American Bulletin 78. 849–858.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, M.B., (1968). Pollen grains in lake sediments: Redeposition caused by seasonal water circulation. Science 162. 796–799.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Davis, M.B., (1973). Redeposition of pollen grains in lake sediment. Limnology and Oceanography 18. 44–52.Google Scholar
Davis, M.B., Brubaker, L.B., (1973). Differential sedimentation of pollen grains in lakes. Limnology and Oceanography 18. 635–646.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, M.B., Brubaker, L.B., Beiswenger, J.M., (1972). Pollen grains in lake sediments: Pollen percentages in surface sediments from Southern Michigan. Quaternary Research 1. 450–467.Google Scholar
Davis, R.B., (1967). Pollen studies of near-surface sediments in Maine lakes. Quaternary Paleoecology Cushing, E.J., Wright, H.E. Jr. Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn 143–173.Google Scholar
Davis, R.B., (1974). Stratigraphic effects of tubificids in profundal lake sediments. Limnology and Oceanography 19. 466–488.Google Scholar
Durham, O.C., (1946). The volumetric incidence of atmosphere allergens IV: A proposed standard method of gravity sampling, counting and volumetric interpolation of results. The Journal of Allergy 17. 79–86.Google Scholar
Ebell, L.F., Schmidt, R.L., (1964). Meteorological Factors Affecting Conifer Pollen Dispersal on Vancouver Island. Department of Forestry Publication No. 1036. Forest Research Branch, Canadian Department of Forestry, Ottawa.Google Scholar
Faegri, K., Iverson, J., (1975). Textbook of Pollen Analysis. Hafner, New York.Google Scholar
Geiger, R., (1966). The Climate Near the Ground. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass.Google Scholar
Goldstein, S., (1960). Degradation of pollen by Phycomycetes. Ecology 41. 543–545.Google Scholar
Green, C.R., Sellers, W.D., (1964). Arizona Climate. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Hall, S.A., (1977). Late Quaternary sedimentation and paleoecologic history of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. Geological Society of America Bulletin 88. 1593–1618.Google Scholar
Hastings, J.R., Turner, R.M., (1965). The Changing Mile: An Ecological Study of Vegetation Change with Time in the Lower Mile of an Arid and Semiarid Region. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Havinga, A.J., (1967). Palynology and pollen preservation. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 2. 81–98.Google Scholar
Hevly, R.H., Mehringer, P.J., Yocum, H.G., (1965). Modern pollen rain in the Sonoran Desert. Journal of the Arizona Academy of Science 3. 123–135.Google Scholar
Kearney, T.H., Peebles, R.H., (1969). Arizona Flora. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
King, J.E., Klippel, W.E., Duffield, R., (1975). Pollen preservation and archaeology in eastern North America. American Antiquity 40. 180–190.Google Scholar
Lehman, J.T., (1975). Reconstructing the rate of accumulation of lake sediment: The effect of sediment focusing. Quaternary Research 5. 541–550.Google Scholar
Leopold, L.B., Emmett, W.W., Myrick, R.M., (1966). Channel and hillslope processes in a semiarid area, New Mexico. U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 193–253352-G.Google Scholar
Lowe, C.H., (1964). Arizona's Natural Environments: Landscapes and Habitats. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Maher, L.J. Jr.. 1963. Pollen analyses of surface materials from the southern San Juan Mountains, Colorado. Geological Society of America Bulletin 74. 1485–1504.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, P.S., (1963). The Last 10,000 Years: A Fossil Pollen Record of the American Southwest. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Martin, P.S., Mehringer, P.J. Jr.. 1965. Pleistocene pollen analysis and biogeography of the southwest. Quaternary of the United States Wright, H.E. Jr., Frey, D.G. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J 433–451.Google Scholar
Mehringer, P.J., (1967). Pollen analysis of the Tule Springs area, Nevada. Pleistocene Studies in Southern Nevada Wormington, H.M., Ellis, D. Nevada State Museum Anthropology Paper No. 13 130–200Carson City.Google Scholar
Mehringer, P.J., Haynes, C.V. Jr.. 1965. The pollen evidence for the environment of early man and extinct mammals at the Lehner mammoth site, southeastern Arizona. American Antiquity 31. 17–23.Google Scholar
Mehringer, P.J., Martin, P.S., Haynes, C.V. Jr.. 1967. Murray Springs, a mid-postglacial pollen record from southern Arizona. American Journal of Science 265. 786–797.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meyer, E.R., (1973). Late-Quaternary paleoecology of the Cuatro Cienegas basin, Coahuila, Mexico. Ecology 54. 982–995.Google Scholar
Muller, J., (1959). Palynology of recent Orinoco delta and shelf sediments. Micropaleontology 5. 1–32.Google Scholar
Peck, R.M., (1974). Pollen budget studies in a small Yorkshire catchment. Quaternary Plant Ecology Birks, H.J.B., West, R.G. Halsted Press, New York 43–61.Google Scholar
Sangster, A.G., Dale, H.M., (1964). Pollen grain preservation of underrepresented species in fossil spectra. Canadian Journal of Botany 42. 437–449.Google Scholar
Shreve, F., (1964). Vegetation of the Sonoran Desert. Vegetation and Flora of the Sonoran Desert Shreve, F., Wiggins, I.L. Vol. I Stanford University Press, Stanford, Calif 1–186.Google Scholar
Siegal, S., (1956). Nonparametric Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences. McGraw-Hill, New York.Google Scholar
Sokal, R.R., Rohlf, F.J., (1969). Biometery: The Principles and Practice of Statistics in Biological Research. Freeman, San Francisco.Google Scholar
Solomon, A.M., (1973). Predictive models of airborne pollen concentrations: Uncertainties in pollen production estimates. Ecological Systems Approaches to Aerobiology II Edmonds, R.L., Benninghoff, W.S.US/IBP Aerobiology Program Hdb3 University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor 99–116.Google Scholar
Solomon, A.M. 1979a. Sources and characteristics of airborne particles: Pollen. Aerobiology: The Ecological Systems Approach Edmonds, R.L. Dowden, Hutchinson, & Ross, Stroudsburg, Pa 41–54.Google Scholar
Solomon, A.M. 1979b. Impact of airborne pollen on plant distribution. Aerobiology: The Ecological Systems Approach Edmonds, R.L. Dowden, Hutchinson, & Ross, Stroudsburg, Pa 192–199.Google Scholar
Solomon, A.M., Harrington, J.B. Jr.. 1979. Palynology models. Aerobiology: The Ecological Systems Approach Edmonds, R.L. Dowden, Hutchinson, & Ross, Stroudsburg, Pa 338–364.Google Scholar
Solomon, A.M., Hayes, H.D., (1972). Desert pollen production. I: Qualitative influence of moisture. Journal of the Arizona Academy of Science 7. 52–74.Google Scholar
Solomon, A.M., Hayes, H.D., (1980). Impacts of urban development upon allergeric pollen in a desert city. Journal of Arid Environments 3. 169–178.Google Scholar
Solomon, A.M., Webb, J.L., (1974). Human disturbance in arid lands: Pollen evidence of modern land use (Abstract). Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America 55. 28.Google Scholar
Tauber, H., (1965). Differential pollen dispersion and the interpretation of pollen diagrams Vol. II Geological Survey of Denmark, Series No. 89. Copenhagen, Denmark.Google Scholar
Turner, R.M., (1974). Map showing vegetation in the Tucson area, Arizona. Miscellaneous Investigaitons Series Map I-844-H, U.S. Geological SurveyReston, Virginia.Google Scholar
U.S. Department of Commerce. 1953–1979 Climatological Data, Arizona Vols. 57–83 U.S. Government Printing Office 1953–1979 Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
U.S. Geological Survey. 1974. “Water resources data for Arizona Part 1. Surface water records.” Tucson, Arizona.Google Scholar
U.S. Geological Survey. 1975. Water resources data for Arizona water U.S. Geological Survey Water-Data Report AZ-75-1year 1975Tucson, Arizona.Google Scholar
Whittaker, R.H., (1965). Vegetation of the Santa Catalina Mountains, Arizona: A gradient analysis of the south slope. Ecology 46. 429–452.Google Scholar
Whittaker, R.H. 1968a. Vegetation of the Santa Catalina Mountains, Arizona. III: Species distribution and floristic relations on the north slope. Journal of the Arizona Academy of Science 5. 3–21.Google Scholar
Whittaker, R.H. 1968b. Vegetation of the Santa Catalina Mountains, Arizona. IV: Limestone and acid soils. Journal of Ecology 56. 523–544.Google Scholar
Whittaker, R.H., (1975). Vegetation of the Santa Catalina Mountains, Arizona. V: Biomass, production, and diversity along the elevational gradient. Ecology 56. 771–790.Google Scholar
Whittaker, R.H., Niering, W.A., (1964). Vegetation of the Santa Catalina Mountains, Arizona. I: Ecological classification and distribution of species. Journal of the Arizona Academy of Science 3. 9–34.Google Scholar
Wilks, S., (1962). Mathematical Statistics. Wiley, New York.Google Scholar