Re your 3 “Quaternary” samples from St. Lawrence Island, Kotzebuan marine and estuarine sediments: all these contained pollen and are described below. Your sample 70APa 203 from Bettles, Alaska was barren.

The tabular results are given below, with actual grains shown on left and percentages of total pollen and spores on right for each sample. Since the assemblages seem to be a mixture of late Tertiary (early Seldovian) and what may be Quaternary types, I have separated the table into two parts accordingly. However, there is really no way we can be reasonably sure whether the primary or probably Quaternary list does not also include a few Tertiary types. Fore example, the small amount of tree pollen, Pinus, Abies in the upper half of the table could represent wind drift of grains from long distances from standing timber, or it could well be a real part of the Seldovian assemblage, and therefore reworked.

The assemblage listed as probably primary pollen suggests that most of the pollen in sample D4667 may be contemporaneous with the Kotzebuan transgression. This sample is dominated by small moss? spores not unlike the ones found in abundance by Dan Livingstone in his late glacial and postglacial lake sediments from the North Slope of Alaska (Livingstone, 1955). They are of the same size and shape as some of our modern spore collections of Polytrichum, for example. Also reminiscent of Dan’s material is the abundance of fern spores and the presence of fern allies and Sphagnum. But this sample (D4667) lacks his diverse array of herbaceous types and NAP such as Betula and Alnus. Tree pollen, if in place, is only 2% of the tally. Plotting his modern pollen rain samples according to distance from the nearest trees, such low percents might represent a linear distance of greater than 40 miles from tree line.

I was uncertain whether all or most of the Taxodiaceous types (13.6%) in this sample were really gymnosperm pollen, but at least some of it is. Hence probably part of this sample is reworked pollen. In conclusion, this sample even though slightly polluted with reworked pollen, still rings true as representing a simple arctic vegetation dominated by primitive plants.

Another sample that we may learn something from is D4668b. Although 6 to 8% of the count shows rich array of tertiary hardwoods, the remaining 94% is a ménage of plants that may be in place. The clear dominant is a tiny heath of the Calluna heather type, and monocots and fern spores are fairly common. The occasional grains of Alnus and Betula may or may not all be in place: the Betula grains range in size from 14 mu (which probably represents the B. glandulosa or arctic type) to 24 mu which could be anything. Small birch grains are uncommon or absent in early Seldovian sediments. The Alnus grain is 4 pored, and could be Seldovian or more recent. The dominance of cf. Calluna is typical of some of our Quaternary and recent samples from Amchitka, but the Amchitka samples usually have a somewhat wider array of dicot herb types. Pollen of the Pinaceae are only about 1.5 or so percent, with the same biogeographic implications as in sample D4667.

We split sample D4668 into two parts and prepared them separately. We found that sample (a) lacked the Calluna type heaths but otherwise was similar.

Sample D4669 has at least 33% Tertiary reworked contaminants, also of Seldovian character, and the remaining pollen is a very rich assemblage of “Alaskan” types. No clear dominants are seen. Betula (6.4%) includes about 6 grains between 14 and 20 mu, and 11 grains between 20 and 30 microns. Hence some of the smaller ones may be of B. galndulosa, the arctic dwarf birch. The alder pollen is 4 and 6 pored and could be in place. Valeriana, Eriogonum, Compositae including sage, grasses (5.6%) and Lycopodium selago, are undoubtedly in place. The tree pollen (Pinaceae) amounts to 7.8% which is high for a site like St. Lawrence Island today. The high percentages and fact that it includes pine and fir makes these occurrences suspect as possible Tertiary grains.

The redeposited pollen which I have listed in the lower part of the table are as a group typical of early Seldovian sediments in Alaska, though individual types range upward through the Homerian. Some of the Juglandaceae grains are similar to pollen of living genera but are morphologically closest to the mixture of intermediate types found in the Oligocene of the region, and probably represent pollen of extinct species if not genera.

And so, here is your report. It is too bad that we are stymied in ecological interpretations because of the presence of rebedded pollen. On the other hand, a few inferences were possible. Don’t know if this material is of much use to you in your paper, but you and Dave are welcome to use it. I’ll check my files and see if I have any more Kotzebuan sediments around that I have not worked. That will be in September.