Distribution and provenance of modern pollen and spores in the surface sediments of Liaodong Bay, China

Abstract To elucidate modern pollen and spore distribution and provenance based on their dispersal patterns, we analyzed 72 surface sediment samples from Liaodong Bay, China and 39 analogous samples from its five inflowing rivers. Our results reveal that most of the pollen and spores in the nearshore marine sediments (water depth Artemisia , Chenopodiaceae, Gramineae, Cyperaceae, Typha , deciduous Quercus , Betula , and Corylus pollen were primarily transported through the inflowing rivers, whereas Pinus and Carpinus pollen were likely to have been transported by wind. The results of DCA [detrended correspondence analysis] analysis and analog dissimilarity analysis suggested that the pollen-spore distribution in the nearshore area of Liaodong Bay mainly reflects fluvial and marine hydrodynamics or water sorting effects, as well as the vegetation distribution onshore. These findings are of critical importance to the interpretation of Quaternary marine pollen data from Liaodong Bay, China.