Palynology

palynology, scientific discipline concerned with the study of plant pollen, spores, and certain microscopic planktonic organisms, in both living and fossil form. The field is associated with the plant sciences as well as with the geologic sciences, notably those aspects dealing with stratigraphy, historical geology, and paleontology. Palynology also has applications in archaeology, forensic science and crime scene investigation, and allergy studies. Accordingly, the scope of palynologic research is extremely broad, ranging from the analysis of pollen morphology with electron microscopes to the study of organic microfossils (palynomorphs) extracted from ancient coals.

mushroom spores

As pollen and spores are produced in large numbers and dispersed over large areas by wind and water, their fossils are recoverable in statistically significant assemblages in a wide variety of sedimentary rocks. Moreover, because pollen and spores are highly resistant to decay and physical alteration, they can be studied in much the same way as the components of living plants. Identification of pollen and spore microfossils has greatly aided delineation of the geographical distribution of many plant groups from early Cambrian time (some 541 million years ago) to the present. Palynological studies using fresh or non-fossilized samples have also been useful in establishing a location or seasonal time frame for crime scenes and have served to determine the agricultural practices and other plant-related activities that occurred at archaeological sites.

Important, too, is the fact that the evolutionary sequence of organisms based on the large fossil remains of plants in sedimentary rocks is recorded by the sequence of plant microfossils as well. Such microfossils are thus useful in determining geologic age and are especially important in sediments devoid of large fossils. Because of their abundance and minute size, microfossils can be extracted from small samples of rock secured in drilling operations. Palynological analysis therefore is of practical application to petroleum exploration and to other geologic research involving subsurface sediments and structures. Palynology is also invaluable to evolutionary and taxonomic research and can help to delineate phylogenetic relationships between fossilized and extant plants.

The phases of palynology that deal exclusively with fossils are outgrowths and extensions of techniques and principles developed in the study of peat deposits of northern Europe during the early 1900s. In such research the presence, absence, and relative abundance of the pollen of various species of trees from known depths in the bog were ascertained statistically. Inasmuch as forest composition determines the pollen types trapped on the surface of a bog at any given time, it follows that changes in the pollen content reflect regional changes in forest composition. It was established that alterations in forest makeup were induced by climatic change over the many thousands of years since glacial ice disappeared from northern Europe. A relationship was thus established between the pollen content of the peat, the age (i.e., position in the bog), and climate. Application of such findings proved invaluable in subsequent studies of ancient climate, particularly the glacial and interglacial stages of the Pleistocene Epoch (approximately 2.6 million to 11,700 years ago).