Pollen transport and deposition in riverine and marine environments within the humid tropics of northeastern Australia

Abstract

Mechanisms of pollen transport in the humid tropics region of northeastern Australia were investigated to support the interpretation of a long Quaternary pollen record from ODP Site 820 located on the adjacent continental slope. Pollen analysis of surface sediment samples from the channels of two major river catchments demonstrated internal consistency in pollen spectra and little fluvial pollen sorting in relation to sediment variation. Differences in modern pollen spectra between catchments reflect existing variation in vegetation cover that, in turn, reflects climatic differences between catchments. Recent pollen spectra from top samples of the ODP core have sufficient in common with the riverine samples to suggest that the rivers are contributing a major pollen component to the offshore sediments, but these have been size sorted by marine action. Recent pollen samples from core tops taken from the Grafton Passage on the continental shelf that was thought to be the major passage for pollen transport to ODP Site 820 show significant differences to both riverine and ODP samples and suggest that pollen are dispersed across the continental shelf and through the outer Great Barrier Reef system in a more complex way than anticipated.

Mangrove pollen of Indonesia and its suitability as a sea-level indicator

“…Stevenson (2004) in New Caladonia, Kamaludin (1993) in Malaysia and Moss, Kershaw and Grindrod (2005) in north Australia all confirm that the mangroves of the area are dominated by the Rhizophoraceae family and Rhizophora and Bruguiera in particular. Grindrod, Moss and van der Kaars (1999) suggest that all of north Australia,…”

Assessing pollen distribution patterns and provenance based on palynological investigation on surface sediments from Laizhou Bay, China: an aid to palaeoecological interpretation

“…Pollen in marine sediments could be transported by different carriers (van der Kaars and Deckker, 2003;Moss et al, 2005;Hooghiemstra et al, 2006;Dupont et al, 2007;Dai and Weng, 2012;Dai et al, 2014), and the knowledge of pollen dispersal mechanisms and provenance is crucial for accurately interpreting pollen data from marine archives and reconstructing past vegetation in the source areas and associated palaeoclimate (e.g., Sun et al, 2003b;Dai et al, 2014.…”

Recognition of southern Gondwanan palynomorphs at Gondwana's northern margin—and biostratigraphic correlation of Permian strata from SE Turkey and Australia

“…5000 km (Ziegler et al, 1997;Stampfli and Borel, 2002), beside climate dependent plant species, certain relatively climate independent plant species occurred, and that these have occupied wide areas across various climate zones. In contrast to a palaeobiogeographical model, a transport mechanism for pollen and spores over wide areas by sea or air currents, as evidenced again in recent studies (Moss et al, 2005;Rousseau et al, 2006) should also be considered. However, Altitriletes densus, formerly considered as characteristic for southern Gondwana areas, shows in SE Anatolia throughout the Permian occurrences (with up to 67%), which are obviously facies-bounded to regional and local depositional environments.…”