An inexpensive sieving method for concentrating pollen and spores from fine-grained sediments

Abstract

A sieving method is described for concentrating pollen and spores from fine-grained sediments. The effectiveness of nylon screens with 5, 7, 10, and 15 μm meshes was tested in comparison with both standard digestion and sodium pyrophosphate suspension procedures.Sieving through 7 μm mesh screens recovers more pollen than any of the other methods tested and effectively removes fines with a negligible loss of pollen (0.4%). We recommend this method for general use with fine-grained minerogenic sediments. Thus, it is possible to process and count more reliably to statistically significant sums, clay and silt-rich samples previously considered either barren of pollen or too time consuming to count.

Evidence for Millennial-Scale Climate Change During Marine Isotope Stages 2 and 3 at Little Lake, Western Oregon, U.S.A.

“…Pollen samples were processed using standard procedures (Cwynar et al, 1979;Faegri et al, 1989). A known amount of Lycopodium spores was added to each sample to calculate the concentration of pollen (grains/cm 3 ).…”

Preliminary Pollen Analysis of Deep Sea Drilling Project Leg 64 Hole 480 (Cores 1–11)

“…in an ultrasonic bath) but this procedure is risky because it can also remove some of the less resistant pollen. A safer technique is to disaggregate the organic fraction with sodium pyrophosphate (Na 4 P 2 O 7 ) and wash through a 7 µva mesh nylon screen (Cwynar et al, 1979). The disaggregation is best done after the HF treatment.…”

Late-Quaternary history of the alpine flora of the New Hampshire White Mountains

“…Pollen samples were treated chemically, using the procedures of Faegri and Iversen (1975). Highly inorganic samples were sieved (Cwynar et al, 1979) to remove small residual organic and mineral particles (<10 µm) and to concentrate the pollen. Residues were mounted in silicone oil on microscope slides.…”