Seasonal sedimentation in the Pliocene Villarroya Lake (N Spain) inferred from pollen analysis

Limnogeology: Ancient and modern tales of an evolving Earth

“…The high quality and good preservation of these deposits and their location in southern New Zealand enable the authors to make some interesting suggestions about Early Miocene climatic changes in this Pacific region. Gauthier and Muñoz (2009) focus on the study of a laminated lacustrine section from the Pliocene Villarroya Lake in northern Spain. The palynologic and sedimentologic analyses allowed the authors to differentiate eight pollen cycles related to short-term climatic fluctuations due to seasonality in precipitation, not directly with temperature oscillations.…”

Seasonal patterns of pollen and the use of pollen as a chronometer in the north‐western Loess Plateau of China

“…Previous studies have clearly linked seasonal pollen deposition to the dating of sediments (Gauthier & Muñoz, ; Liew et al , ; López‐Merino et al , ; Lotter, ; Rull et al , ; St. Jacques et al , ; Tippett, ; Wu & Gray, ). These studies have shown that the pollen assemblages in different coloured layers displayed seasonal patterns and that pollen assemblages could be used to identify annual layers and therefore to date sediments.…”

“…These studies have shown that the pollen assemblages in different coloured layers displayed seasonal patterns and that pollen assemblages could be used to identify annual layers and therefore to date sediments. However, certain studies have shown that dark layers represent sedimentation in the winter–spring, whereas light layers represent sedimentation in the summer–autumn (Gauthier & Muñoz, ; Liew et al , ; Lotter, ; St. Jacques et al , ). Other studies have reached the opposite conclusions (Wu & Gray, ).…”

“…A number of previous studies have found that analysing the seasonal pollen signal can enable the distinction of annual layers in lake sediment (Gauthier & Muñoz, ; López‐Merino et al , ; Lotter, ; St. Jacques et al , ; Tippett, ), even in the absence of macroscopically visible laminations (Clark, ; Rull et al , ). If this palynology could reach a seasonal resolution, the latter would provide the highest temporal resolution for lake sediments and represents a dating technique with an annual resolution that was comparable to those derived from tree rings, ice core laminations or speleothems.…”

“…A number of previous studies have found that analysing the seasonal pollen signal can enable the distinction of annual layers in lake sediment (Gauthier & Muñoz, 2009;López-Merino et al, 2016;Lotter, 1989;St. Jacques et al, 2008;Tippett, 1964), even in the absence of macroscopically visible laminations (Clark, 1986;Rull et al, 2017).…”