Palynology of arid lands

The main theme of this book is the reconstruction of past arid environments. Firstly natural agents relevant to palynology in arid lands, from pollen release by parent plants through transportation, deposition and preservation in various types of rocks. It then describes sampling strategies, various treatments for extracting microfossils from host rocks, identifying, counting and presenting the results. Concepts and ways for interpretations of results are also discussed. There are several case studies, to demonstrate prospects and possibilities in constructing late Cenozoic vegetation, climate, transport, environments of deposition, structure, stratigraphy, regional paleogeography and human settlement of past arid environments. A discussion of pre-late Cenozoic arid lands palynology is also included, with examples from the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic deserts. -from Publisher