Modern cave pollen in an arid environment and its application to describe palaeorecords

Abstract

Análisis de polen moderno en cuevas con un clima árido y su aplicación para describir los paleoregistros. Se presentan los resultados del análisis polínico de sedimentos superficiales de dos cavidades del SE ibérico, región caracterizada por un clima relativamente árido y una vegetación principalmente entomófila. Queda confirmado el valor de la aridez para la preservación polínica en los sedimentos de cavidades kársticas, encontrándose valores elevados de concentración polínica y del número de taxones, así como bajos porcentajes de pólenes indeterminables. Los espectros polínicos de sedimentos de cuevas, aún estando fuertemente influenciados por el transporte biótico, pueden constituir un buen indicador de la vegetación que crece en los alrededores de la cavidad, incluso mejor que la propia lluvia polínica externa. ABSTRACT.- This paper presents pollen-analytical results of surface sediments from two caves in southeastern Spain, a region of particular interest because of its relatively arid climate and entomophilous-dominated flora. The positive role of aridity on pollen preservation in cave sediments is confirmed, and is reflected by samples with high pollen concentration and number of taxa, and low percentages of indeterminable palynomorphs. Pollen spectra from cave sediments, while strongly influenced by biotic transport, may represent the surrounding vegetation acceptably well, even better than the external pollen rain in which is biased by very abundant production and dispersal of wind-pollinated taxa.

This paper presents pollen-analytical results of surface sediments from two caves in southeastern Spain, a region of particular interest because of its relatively arid climate and entomophilous-dominated flora. The positive role of aridity on pollen preservation in cave sediments is confirmed, and is reflected by samples with high pollen concentration and number of taxa, and low percentages of indeterminable palynomorphs. Pollen spectra from cave sediments, while strongly influenced by biotic transport, may represent the surrounding vegetation acceptably well, even better than the external pollen rain in which is biased by very abundant production and dispersal of wind-pollinated taxa.