PRELIMINARY HOLOCENE PALEOCLIMATIC DATA FROM PALYNOLOGY OF CYPRESS POND, SOUTH CENTRAL MISSOURI

Pollen and non-pollen palynomorphs in a staggered sediment core from Cypress Pond in Bollinger County, Missouri, sampled at low-resolution, were used to reconstruct paleovegetation and infer paleoclimatic information in the region. The core was taken in eleven successive drives using a Livingston piston corer for a total depth of 8 m. Age constraints were established using radiocarbon dating on wood macrofossils. A mixed pollen assemblage was recovered in the sediments. Temperate forest pollen taxa included Quercus (oak), Pinus, Alnus (alder), Ulmus (elm), Juglans (walnut), Liquidambar (sweetgum), Cornus (dogwood), and Nyssa (black/tupelo gum), along with more wetland-loving Carya (hickory), Betulaceae (birch),Populus (cottonwood), and Cupressaceae (cypress). Glade pollen belonging to Poaceae (grass), Asteraceae (sunflowers, including Ambrosia [ragweed]), Plantago (plantain), Chenopodiaceae (goosefoot), and Humulus (hop) and the aquatic genera Brasenia (water-shield), Nuphar (water-lilly) and Myriophyllum (watermillfoil) were also present. Preliminary results from this data indicate warming conditions in the mid-late Holocene, which allowed cypress to become an important part of more recent vegetation. Eutrophic water conditions appear to coincide with this warming period, which is shown by the appearance of Pediastrum boryanum var. cornutum in the same interval.