Fossil Pollen Collection
Moksha Badarayan
Outdoor Education Coordinator
Wind Wolves Preserve
Wind Wolves Preserve staff work alongside researchers collecting soil samples in the filed. Photo by Brittany Hernandez / The Wildlands Conservancy.
In late April, The Wildlands Conservancy’s staff from Wind Wolves Preserve escorted a group of paleobotanists from the University de Montpellier in France to different sites around Wind Wolves Preserve to collect soil samples. Paleobotanists study ancient flora, including pollen. The researchers collected soil samples which contain both pollen from current flora as well as fossil pollen from their ancient counterparts. By comparing the species currently inhabiting this area with those that used to live here, researchers can infer how the climate has changed over the years. For example, researchers may find fossil pollen from plants that thrive in a more tropical climate while current pollen samples may be from desert-dwelling plants. This would indicate that the climate shifted from more tropical to more dry.
Why collect pollen? There is a lot more pollen than plants, and pollen spores are tough little things. The outer “exine” layer of pollen is made from an inert cellulose polymer called sporopollenin. Sporopollenin is resistant to physical, chemical, and biological degradation which allows for it to be preserved in layers of sediments better than plant and animal tissues. This makes pollen a good source of data about past climates.
In addition to The Wildlands Conservancy’s Wind Wolves Preserve, this team of scientists plan to visit other locations in California to collect samples of surface soil or mosses from different vegetation communities such as grassland, scrub/chaparral, oak/mixed oak, and wetland. It will take them about three years to process their data and come to a conclusion about the changing climate of this part of the world.