NPPs

• Microfossils that are chemically or morphologically similar to pollen
• Resistant to the chemicals that isolate pollen
• They are becoming more interesting to modern scientists - provide ecological information that can be used to reconstruct past ecosystems and landscapes (like pollen does)
• Can also be used as a proxy as well as pollen for other purposes

Examples

Vascular plants

• Hornwort, water lily, certatophyllum pollen is rare but fossils are distinctive

Green algae like:

• Zygnema-types which inhabit shallow stangnant water
• Pediastrum species canindicate pH, untrient status, water chemistry, erosion
• Botryococcus which lives in freshwater fens and temporary pools

Cyanobacteria

• Indicates eutrophication of the lake
• Can also indicate increase in farming or fertilizer use around the lake catchment
• Or can be natural eutrophication

Fungal spores

• Found in peat deposits, rare in lakes
• Could be growing in organic material or animal dung (indication of large grazing herbivores)
  • Sporomiella spores with distinct morphology, can be used to investigate increase in grazing livestock and also Pleistocene megafaunal extinction
• Some fire that grows in burnt plant remains (indicator of fire)
  • Pyrophilious fungal species
  • Neurospora are the distinctive taxa
  • Germinates after being subjected to moist heat 65 - 70 deg C, so after a fire
• Parasitic fungi that are parasites of certain seeds that can indicate presence of this taxa
• Glomus spores (mycorhizal soil fungi) will indicate more erosion in a lake, since living soil has been sent into the lake

Trends

This is an evolving field and is more being used on its own or combined with other data

NPP image database from goettingen:
https://non-pollen-palynomorphs.uni-goettingen.de/