Dataset of pollen morphological traits of 56 dominant species among desert vegetation in the eastern arid central Asia

Abstract

The data presented in this article are related to the research article entitled “Pollen spectrum, a cornerstone for tracing the evolution of the eastern central Asian desert” (JQSR 5260) (Lu et al., 2018) [1] In this paper, we supply a dataset, which provides a descriptive and general summary of pollen characteristic of desert dominant species in the eastern arid central Asia (ACA). The other important component is the illustration on pollen grains traits under light microscopy (LM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Pollen grains of 56 species are extracted from voucher specimens from the PE herbarium at the Institute of Botany. It is worth noting that these species own special distribution patterns in China. The distribution maps are plotted using the Google Maps and the species distribution data at the county level supplied by the Chinese Virtual Herbarium (http://www.cvh.ac.cn/).

New pollen classification of Chenopodiaceae for exploring and tracing desert vegetation evolution in eastern arid central Asia

“…Indeed we should acknowledge that this work, together with our last publication on pollen spectrum (Lu et al, 2018a(Lu et al, , 2018b, provide a possibility to associate pollen assemblages with specific desert vegetation types in eastern ACA, which is a preliminary "test-run" brought forth for others to try out and confirm. Principal component analysis (PCA; Ter Braak & Smilauer, 2012) reveals the relationship between different environmental factors and geographical distribution of desert vegetation types in the eastern ACA.…”

“…We noticed that most of the pollen micromorphological features, such as pore diameter, pore number, and pore membrane ornamentation, used to separate the different taxa of Chenopodiaceae at the generic level are only detected under SEM, although pore number and diameter are visible under LM (Hao et al, ; Perveen & Qaiser, ; Lu et al, , ). The morphological features of Chenopodiaceae rarely permit species‐level or genus‐level differentiation under LM (Pan, ; Carrión et al, ; Carrión, ; Nebout et al, ).…”

“…Indeed we should acknowledge that this work, together with our last publication on pollen spectrum (Lu et al, , ), provide a possibility to associate pollen assemblages with specific desert vegetation types in eastern ACA, which is a preliminary “test‐run” brought forth for others to try out and confirm.…”

“…We noticed that most of the pollen micromorphological features, such as pore diameter, pore number, and pore membrane ornamentation, used to separate the different taxa of Chenopodiaceae at the generic level are only detected under SEM, although pore number and diameter are visible under LM (Hao et al, 1989;Perveen & Qaiser, 2012;Lu et al, 2018aLu et al, , 2018b In previous work, pollen size was used as a criterion to differentiate pollen types (Hao et al, 1989;Perveen & Qaiser, 2012). However, pollen size is excluded in our new Chenopodiaceae pollen classification, as Pan (1993) pointed out that it could be influenced by humidity in different habitats.…”

“…Here we attempt to: (i) provide a new pollen classification of Chenopodiaceae to improve the resolution and accuracy of pollen identification in the eastern ACA; (ii) link specific pollen types to temperate desert vegetation types; and (iii) plot distribution maps of each pollen type in the Chenopodiaceae to understand the distribution patterns of these dominant plants in the eastern ACA. This work, together with the survey on pollen morphology in the eastern ACA (Lu et al, , ) will not only provide a sound basis for the accurate identification of modern and subfossil pollen grains, but also act as a cornerstone for further interpretation of the pollen records in the geological past.…”