Speleothem palynology: an undervalued tool in Quaternary studies

Palynological analysis of cave sediments, in particular the analysis of pollen from speleothems is not a widely adopted approach to palaeoenvironmental studies in the British Isles. This disregard of speleopalynology may be due to the lack of understanding of the cave pollen taphonomy, and uncertainty and suspicion as to what cave pollen spectra actually represent. However, a number of studies of pollen from caves have been carried out, particularly in Belgium, France and Spain which have demonstrated speleothem pollen spectra to be representative of contemporary vegetation above the cave, with pollen generally well preserved. Speleothems have the distinct advantage over other pollen sources that they can be dated by high precision TIMS U-Th dating, up to an order of magnitude further back in time than C-14 dating of organic sediments would allow. This potentially allows previously unconstrained Middle Pleistocene palynological records to be precisely and accurately dated, thus providing a geochronologically controlled terrestrial record of palaeoenvironmental change. This paper presents a timely review of speleothem palynology, aiming to eliminate biases and misconceptions and illustrate the enormous potential this unique source of palaeoenvironmental data holds, particularly in providing accurately dated pollen records from previously understudied environments and time periods. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.