Modern pollen rain of Washington

• Published in: Canadian Journal of Botany
• Main Author: Heusser, Calvin J.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Canadian Science Publishing 1978
• Subjects: Plant Science; Pacific; Tundra
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/b78-177; http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/b78-177

Modern pollen rain was studied at 98 sites distributed in a belt transect some 250 km wide running a distance of 425 km between La Push on the Pacific coast and Grand Coulee on the Columbia Plateau. Sites are located in a variety of plant communities from the Picea sitchensis Zone near sea level to the Alpine Tundra Zone at 2285 m in the Cascades. The purposes of the study are (1) to establish the nature of the pollen rain and its relation to vegetation sources and (2) to develop further the pool of potential analogs of fossil pollen spectra for use in the reconstruction of Quaternary environments.Relative frequencies are shown for the pollen of Pinus, Picea, Abies, Tsuga, Pseudotsuga, Cupressaceae, Alnus, Gramineae, Cyperaceae, Chenopodiaceae, Artemisia, and Compositae. Results indicate the pollen rain to be related to source vegetation at the collection sites except for certain instances of infiltration by extraneous types, of which Pinus is most conspicuous. Alnus is the dominant pollen in the Puget Lowland and the western Coast and Cascade Ranges; Tsuga heterophylla is most prominent in the Coast Range; and Pinus ranks foremost in the eastern Cascades and on the Columbia Plateau. On the Columbia Plateau, the Gramineae, Artemisia, Compositae, and Chenopodiaceae are also distinctive. Subalpine forest types and nonarboreals are generally characteristic of the Timberline and Alpine Tundra Zones.