Applied micropaleobotany 1300-OMPBSW
Morphology of modern pollen grains and spores - structure and sculpture of exines; pollen rain and the problem of pollen transfer agents; pollen accumulation and preservation of pollen exines in sediments; sampling methods, laboratory procedures, pollen counting and identification, identification keys, pollen reference slides, construction of pollen diagram, pollen analysis as statistical and climatostratigraphical method, interpretation of results; spores of early land plants, spores/macrospores and pollen of Devonian/Carbonaceous and Mesozoic strata and Tertiary/Quaternary interglacial deposits. Palynology of the Late Glacial/Holocene sequences - analysis of human impact. Practical applications of pollen analysis - melissopalynology, analysis of modern pollen rain. Phytoliths. Silicoflagellata, Dinoflagellata and Bacillarophyta: skeletal morphology, stratigraphical significance.
Type of course
Course coordinators
Learning outcomes
Students should be able to identify the basic groups of botanical microfossils (and show elements of their skeletal structure/sculpture) such as diatoms, coccoliths, dinocyst and phytolits and to know their potency as stratigraphical tools and application in palaeoenvironmental reconstruction as well as to perform pollen analysis of peat/lacustrine sediments - starting from laboratory procedures, through counting and identifying pollen and finally making and interpreting pollen diagram.
Assessment criteria
About 60% of correct responses are required for passing.
Written exam, semestral test.
Practical placement
none
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: