Pollen in packrat middens |
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| Authors: | Mary Kay O'Rourke |
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| Institution: | Desert Laboratory, Dept. of Ceosciences , University of Arizona , Tucson, Arizona, 85721, U.S.A. |
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| Abstract: | Fossil packrat middens are used to reconstruct late Quaternary environments in the arid Western U.S.A. Airborne pollen is contributed to middens both directly from the air, and through adherence to plant macrofossils. I examined the filtration of atmospheric pollen by Larrea tridentata leaves (resinous, with sparse recumbent hairs), Cercidium microphyllum twigs (glabrous with recumbent hairs) and Sphaeralcea ambigua leaves (covered with stellate hairs) and evaluated the potential biases of scavenged pollen on the interpretation of pollen records from middens. Pollen grains collected from the surfaces of the plants were most numerous during the spring when (airborne) pollen concentrations were high. Of the species investigated, the Sphaeralcea leaves filtered the greatest number of spring pollen grains from the air (3419 grains cm?2); captured pollen was very low during other seasons. Sticky Larrea leaves continuously captured airborne pollen (  | |
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