Pollen morphology of forests Poaceae native of southern Brazil and its implications in the Quaternary fossil records.

Abstract

In this study we analyzed the pollen morphology of different native genera forest of the Poaceae family from southern Brazil. The objective of this study is to determine if Poaceae pollen grains forests are different from Poaceae pollen grains grasslands of South America ecosystems. Although Poaceae pollen grains are related to grassland when identified in quaternary sediments, some species of this family are forest and its pollen morphology is unknown to the south of Brazil. We observed differences between forest Poaceae pollen grains and pollen from grassland this family already described for the region. Poaceae pollen grains of forest species showed larger size than pollen grains grassland species. Comparing the pollen grains of different forest genera we can distinguish two patterns that are related with habit. Herbaceous forest species has smallest pollen grains that tree species. The pollen data presented indicate that it is possible to distinguish between patterns of Poaceae pollen grains in relation to the habit and than their pollen grains can be distinguishing of the grassland species in Quaternary fossil record of southern South America.