Last interglacial environment of the Baikal Region (Southern Siberia, Russia) based on analysis of fossil invertebrates and plants

New data on fossil insects, soil and freshwater invertebrates, plant macrofossils, pollen and spores were obtained from a problematic lower unit of the reference section Bely Yar-II (Tunka Rift, Baikal Region, Russia). The invertebrates show a natural succession from a small lake to a wetland; plant macrofossils confirm the early stages of succession. Pollen and spore data reflect a wide range of environments and vegetation from moderate climate supporting regional forests to relatively cold, dry parkland. New Uranium-Thorium data (99 ± 20 ka and 101 ± 13 ka), along with environmental reconstructions, indicate that the lower unit was probably formed during one of the cold sub-stages towards the end the last inter-glaciation (MIS5).

Sedimentary Environmental Evolution of the Western Taiwan Shoal Area since the Late Pleistocene

A new pollen analysis and major and trace element contents were conducted on a 40 m long gravity core recovered from the Taiwan Shoal (sand ridges), south of the Taiwan Strait, beginning in the Late Pleistocene. The changes in the pollen assemblage and concentration represent the climate change around the Taiwan Shoal and the strength of the Zhe-Min Coastal Current, whereas variations in major and trace element contents can imply the source of the sediments in the Taiwan Shoal, which are correlated with the rise or fall of the sea level with increased marine dinoflagellate cysts. The interval of 40–30 m was characterized by high pollen and spore concentrations, and evergreen Quercus was dominant taxon, which indicates a warm sedimentary environment, and the surrounding area of the Taiwan Shoal were covered by a tropical and subtropical broad-leaved forest. There were no pollen and spores from 30–24 m, which indicates a strong hydrodynamic sedimentary environment, and most of the Taiwan Shoal might have been experience subaerial exposure. The interval of 24–17 m was characterized by the reappearance of pollen and spores, as well as marine dinoflagellate cysts and foraminifera, suggesting the climate was warm and wet in the study area and an apparent marine sedimentary environment with relatively high sea level. Deciduous Quercus dominated the interval of 17–12 m, which indicated that the climate was relatively cool, corresponding to the end of Marine isotope stages3 (MIS3) to the Last Glacial Maximum accompanied by weathering and denudation. Above 12 m, the low pollen concentration with increased marine dinoflagellate cysts and foraminifera abundance suggested a marine sedimentary environment in the Taiwan Shoal. The high concentrations in Pinus corresponds to Holocene high sea level.

Miocene Palynology of the Solimões Formation (Well 1-AS-105-AM), Western Brazilian Amazonia

During the Miocene, Andean tectonism caused the development of a vast wetland across western Amazonia. Palynological studies have been the main source of chronological and paleobotanical information for this region, including several boreholes in the Solimões Formation in western Brazilian Amazonia. Here, a palynological study of well core 1-AS-105-AM drilled in Tabatinga (Amazonas, Brazil) is presented: 91 new taxa are erected (25 spores and 66 pollen, including one new genus), 16 new combinations are proposed, and a list of botanical/ecological affinities is updated. We recorded 23,880 palynomorphs distributed in 401 different types. Among pollen and spores, 62 extant families and 99 extant genera were identified, which accounts for 39% and 30% of known botanical affinities to the family and genus level, respectively. Individual samples have pollen/spore counts with approximately 25% to 95% of known affinities to the family level. Pollen associations are sourced primarily from the wetland environments and to a minor extent from nonflooded forests. Palynological diversity analyses indicate an increase from the early to the middle/early late Miocene in core 1-AS-105-AM. Probable scenarios to explain this diversity increase include a higher degree of environmental complexity from the middle Miocene onwards, that is, a more heterogeneous riverscape, including broader extensions of nonflooded forests, as opposed to the swamp-dominated early Miocene. Additionally, the positive effects of the Miocene Climatic Optimum on plant richness could explain the increase in pollen richness. We posit hypotheses of forest diversification that can be tested as more botanical affinities are established along with a longer Miocene record.

Forensic comparative analysis of soils by the method of sporo-pollen analysis using projection to latent structures discriminant analysis

Extensive use of sporo-pollen analysis is largely conditioned by such specific features of pollen and spores as their very-large-scale production in plants, the ability to preserve in soils, presence of characteristic morphological features enabling to distinguish and identify individual taxa, etc. In Belarus, the method of sporo-pollen analysis has also been implemented while forensic soil examination: it is increasingly applied to solve identification tasks in comparative analysis to establish the belonging of soil layers on physical evidence to the searched area. Its main advantage is that it is a multicomponent analysis allowing to evaluate both the composition of palynoflora and the percentage of several dozen components of sporo-pollen spectra contained in soil samples. Therefore, to determine the belonging of soil layers on physical evidence to the searched area, most informative are data obtained while sporo-pollen analysis, helping forensic experts on the basis of a specific taxonomic composition of pollen and spores and percentage of spectra components to draw the most valid conclusions. Detection of pollen and spores in studied samples in a quantity sufficient for comparative analysis enables to statistically process data of samples microscopic examination. Statistical processing of results is one of the characteristic features of sporo-pollen analysis as a method that distinguishes it from other methods implemented in multidisciplinary forensic examination of soil.

Research Progress on Aerobiology in the Last 30 Years: A Focus on Methodology and Occupational Health

Aerobiology, as a scientific discipline, developed during the last century and has been applied to different types of organisms and scenarios. In the context of the Integrated Evaluation of Indoor Particulate Exposure (VIEPI) project, we conducted a bibliometric study of the scientific literature on aerobiology from the last three decades, establishing the recent advances and the critical issues regarding the application of aerobiological methods to occupational settings. The data were collected from Scopus, Web of Science and PubMed. We explored the distribution of the articles in different years and research areas and realized a bibliometric analysis using the CiteSpace software. The results indicated that the number of publications is increasing. The studies related to environmental sciences were the most represented, while the number of occupational studies was more limited. The most common keywords were related to pollen, fungal spores and their relation with phenology, climate change and human health. This article shows that aerobiology is not restricted to the study of pollen and spores, extending the discipline and the application of aerobiological methods to occupational settings, currently under-explored.

Proxapertites from Walat Formation, Sukabumi, West Java, Indonesia

Proxapertites have become one of the most significant indicators of ancient rock in Indonesia. Walat Formation is one of the oldest rocks exposed in Sukabumi, West Java, Indonesia. These Proxapertites have not been described in detail about their characteristics in previous studies, especially on Walat Formation. Therefore, knowing the characteristics of Proxapertites becomes interesting, especially in Walat Formation, which can be a reference for the characteristics of the late Eocene Proxapertites (37.8 - 33.9 million) in Indonesia. Acetolysis method was carried out for the preparation of pollen and spores; description and determination were carried out to see the characteristics of Proxapertites that present in Walat Formation. Result, there are three types of Proxapertites. Proxapertites operculatus have sizes 23 – 86 µ with average 40.5 (P) and 51.1 (E) µ, index PE 0,43 - 1, Peroblate – Subspheroidal – Oblate Spheroidal, Fine-Reticulate ornamentation, and Asymmetric Monosulcate aperture. Proxapertites cursus have sizes 23 – 86 µ with average 39.8 (P) and 49.8 (E) µ, index PE 0.51 - 1, Oblate – Subspheroidal – Oblate Spheroidal, Reticulate ornamentation, and Asymmetric Monosulcate aperture. Whereas Proxapertites psilatus have sizes 29 – 75 µ with average 42.3 (P) and 52.5 (E) µ, index PE 0.58 - 1, Oblate – Subspheroidal – Oblate Spheroidal, Psilate ornamentation, and Asymmetric Monosulcate aperture. These three Proxapertites can be distinguished by their type of ornamentation. Meanwhile, other aspects have similar characteristics and are affected by the appearance of individual pollen on the slide during preparation.

Clustering approach for the analysis of the fluorescent bioaerosol collected by an automatic detector

Automatically operating particle detection devices generate valuable data, but their use in routine aerobiology needs to be harmonized. The growing network of researchers using automatic pollen detectors has the challenge to develop new data processing systems, best suited for identification of pollen or spore from bioaerosol data obtained near-real-time. It is challenging to recognise all the particles in the atmospheric bioaerosol due to their diversity. In this study, we aimed to find the natural groupings of pollen data by using cluster analysis, with the intent to use these groupings for further interpretation of real-time bioaerosol measurements. The scattering and fluorescence data belonging to 29 types of pollen and spores were first acquired in the laboratory using Rapid-E automatic particle detector. Neural networks were used for primary data processing, and the resulting feature vectors were clustered for scattering and fluorescence modality. Scattering clusters results showed that pollen of the same plant taxa associates with the different clusters corresponding to particle shape and size properties. According to fluorescence clusters, pollen grouping highlighted the possibility to differentiate Dactylis and Secale genera in the Poaceae family. Fluorescent clusters played a more important role than scattering for separating unidentified fluorescent particles from tested pollen. The proposed clustering method aids in reducing the number of false-positive errors.