The AASP Annual Meeting in San Antonio was entirely successful. About 68 registrants (concerns about terrorist action may have kept the number of walk-up participants down) were unanimous in a positive evaluation of both the meeting (thank you, Tom, Dave and Don!) and the quality of the papers presented. As someone noted, each paper was attended by anywhere from 55 to 65 persons; for the last afternoon there were still better than 45 in their seats. Not only had many papers significant scientific interest, but not a few of them were presented in highly entertaining fashion (thank-you Yow-yuh, Carlos and Oscar, and Eddie!). Training in palynology may be a good foundation for stand-up comedy!

At least eight registrants were from the Latin Americas, five each from the United Kingdom and Canada, and one each from Denmark, Switzerland, Australia, Taiwan, Indonesia, and France. The remaining 40 or so were from the USA.

President David Pocknall voiced concern over the steady increase in average age of the membership, as well as the erosion of its numbers. The latter reflects a vicious circle where few major companies offer new permanent positions, so few students are motivated to select palynology as their field of study, wherefore few professors can meet the administrative requirements for teaching (advanced) courses in applied palynology, while the undergraduate curricula become increasingly stuffed with courses in newfangled (sub)disciplines, which leaves hardly any or no timeslots for elective subjects like palynology. Thus, as older practioners retire, the remaining staff of (even major) organizations become ill- or un-informed about the capabilities of applied palynology, and do not know when, or whom, to involve in solving perceived, or overlooked, (bio)stratigraphic problems.

Furthermore, many corporations that in the past supported AASP in kind (e.g., by absorbing mailing costs) now have discontinued that practice. In the last two years, AASP has produced a ca $35+ value for a yearly fee of $30. Even non-profit organizations cannot operate in that manner for very long. Thus, the executive decided to raise the regular membership to $45 per year, ($30 for students for up to 3 years). Also, as the mailings of the newsletter cost in the order of $4000 per year, the members can really help the budget by downloading the electronic version off the web, and informing the Secretary that they do not need a paper copy sent by snail mail. At the business luncheon Ken Piel announced that Paul Wesendunk willed a large part of his estate to the Center of Excellence (indeed becoming the single largest donor to that program). Louisiana State University has agreed to some changes in its agreement with AASP that are very beneficial to our undertaking. We now need only some $20,000 more, to establish a permanent chair in palynology - a goal that all members should try to support and make a reality before there are further, less favorable, changes in Baton Rouge. [Piel and his committee deserve recognition for the efforts that have brought this undertaking so close to success.]

After dessert, Al Traverse got his just desert, as he was awarded the second AASP Medal of Excellence in Education. Some of his old students testified to Al's dedication and wide influence on burgeoning palynologists, and Al showed slides to document his trail-blazing techniques, as well as how many hats he wore in his career.

Below, I capsulate most of the papers given. This will indicate the subject matter, and will give a clue to someone interested in the topic as to which author he should approach for further information.

I mentioned earlier the reduction in corporate sponsorship and employment. Nevertheless, there was the thoroughly documented paper by Paul Sikora and Jeff Stein who, on behest of BP Exploration, are engaged in developing a microfossil-based recalibrated time scale for the Aptian through Maastrichtian interval, the current subdivisions of which are based on macrofossils. They are integrating the ranges of various groups of microfossils (including dinocysts and pollen) with magnetostratigraphy, radiometric dates and cyclostratigraphy, which also allows terrestrial to marine correlations. Their aim is to build an integrated microfossil zonation that exceeds the age resolution of the macrofossil biozonations, and they demonstrated the potential of this method through the preliminary results from the study of Conacian and Santonian stages in the Niobrara Chalk in western Kansas.

Mats Eriksson, with a solid training in preparing scolecodont assemblages and/or reconstructing them from dispersed jaw elements in the Baltic region, now does similar work in the North American Upper Ordovician (Cincinnatian) strata. Although natural assemblages are not uncommon when the processing is adjusted for optimum recovery, Eriksson also ventures confidently in reconstructing assemblages "de novo", using a finely honed eye for mentally fitting together dispersed disparate jaw elements. The results inspire confidence, even if the method seems hazardous to the uninitiated. The end result, it is hoped, will be a single, apparatus-based systematics and phylogony, as well as improved biostratigraphic utility.

Paul Strother talked us through his work in progress on correlating the changes in CO₂ concentration in ancient ('aragonite' and 'calcite') seas with phytoplankton diversity. The calcite seas had high CO₂ levels in Cambrian-Devonian and mid-Triassic-Paleogene seas, but the latest Vendian-Lower Cambrian, Carboniferous-early Triassic, and Neogene-Recent (aragonite) seas were low in CO₂. The changes in ocean chemistry are thought to result from varying refluxing of hydrothermal brines from mid-ocean ridges that affect the concentrations of Mg²⁺, Ca²⁺ and HCO^3-. The two Phanerozoic calcite seas had quite different phytoplankton: the early one (with atmospheric CO₂ pressure 16x that of Recent) had all acritarchs, the later one a mix of coccoliths, diatoms and dinoflagellates. This difference is puzzling, as diatoms and dinoflagellates now are thought to have quite ancient origins. The mid-Triassic re-radiation occurred under much lower CO₂ concentration, which will have required more efficient Rubisco (the enzyme catalysing the fixation of CO₂ in photosynthesis) and carbon concentration mechanims.

Francine McCarthy reported on ODP Leg 191, site 1179, at 5586 m depth in mid-latitude, which is >1 km below CCD (carbon compensation depth), resulting in <1% mean CaCO₃ concentration. Still, in two intervals CaCO₃ came in at ca 7%, in association with abundant, well preserved calcareous microfossils, and protoperidinioid (round brown) cysts and pollen grains. The age of these two samples is ~2.5 Ma and ~900 ka. Round brown cysts are highly susceptible to oxidation. Apparently, the combination of increased sea surface productivity and rapid burial allowed calcareous microfossils to be preserved. Round browns are rare in the non-calcareous sediments. Some other similar anomalous deep calcareous samples had significant links to the global climate system.

Vera Pospelova and Gail Chmura demonstrated the utility of dinocyst study in estuarine systems, as the cysts serve as indicators of environmental conditions (temperature, salinity, ice cover, distance to shore-line). In paleoconditions the modern distributions can help to reconstruct past environmental conditions in estuarine systems. Cyst species diversity and abundance can vary strongly between estuaries, and even within the same one. Salinity gradients are reflected in cyst morphologies. Cyst distributions can be used to monitor (sources of) pollution, levels of nutrients and salinity.

Jim Riding studied the northern and southern lineages of the species of Wanaea, and rationalized their assignment to this genus, and some others. In a revised and emended sense, several species appear to have well defined stratigraphic ranges. Those with lacey paracingular flanges are consistently younger than the 'energlynioid' species. The latter are largely confined to the mid-Jurassic (esp. Bathonian), whereas the more evolved flanged ones range from mid-Callovian to early Oxfordian. In Wanaea zoharis, there is a solid extension of the antapical horn/protuberance; the term antapicular structure is proposed for this feature. Wanaea indotata is the only cosmopolitan form; it may be intermediate between the energlynioid and flanged species.

Vaughn Bryant and Gretchen Jones discussed the PC (pollen coefficient) values in a number of premium (single species) types of honey. The PC values are meant to indicate the purity of source of such honey. However, weak pollen production, pollen removal (in the honeybee's 'crop') and even inappropriate lab processing of such honey before a pollen count, can lead to various numerical results, and do not yet provide a dependable objective index for the authenticity of such prized honey.

Jennifer Hopkins and Francine McCarthy reported on lab studies on marine sediments, where the resistance to oxidation of various types of fossils was quantitatively assessed by exposing them to H₂O₂. Round browns cysts are most susceptible to decay, those of autotrophic taxa are very resistant, but still less so than the walls of pollen grains. The skewing of assemblages through taphonomic oxidation, especially in continental margin settings, must be considered to avoid errors in interpreting preserved assemblages.

Patrick Moss et al. investigated pollen transport and deposition in tropical northeast Australia, where they found no evidence in the estuaries for fluvial sorting into sand- and silt-sized pollen types (as reported elsewhere).

Rolf Mathewes reported on the deposition of a thick 10,100-10,500 years old 40-50 cm silty clay layer in Saanich Inlet on Vancouver Island. Clay minerals and reworked Paleocene spores and pollen indicate that this bed resulted from an outburst flooding event triggered by the collapse of (an) ice dam(s) on the Fraser river in mainland British Columbia. The sediment plume was carried across the Georgia Strait, and over the sill that protects the anoxic bottom sediments in Saanich Inlet.

Tuesday was filled with a symposium on Central and South American Palynology. Hernandos Duenas showed well preserved palynological assemblages from 15,000' thick strata of Vendian, Cambrian, Ordovician and Middle Devonian - Lower Carboniferous age, that fill the lower part of the Venezuelan Llanos Basin and by some still are considered, from seismic evidence, as representing metamorphic basement strata. The TAI indicates that these strata are mostly in the oil window, appearing similar to assemblages from northern Africa (Libya).

Wolfgang Volkheimer, Quattrocchio and Cabaleri presented a detailed analysis of the Jurassic Canadon Asfalto sequence in central Patagonia, consisting of basalts and tuffs at the base, overlain by cyclic lacustrine beds that alternated between paludous flooding (Botryococcus) and dry sabkha-like (gypsum, desiccation breccia) conditions.

W.A.S. Sarjeant and Volkheimer presented a study of Late Valanginian - Hauterivian dinoflagellates, many of the Ceratiaceae family, from the Neuquen Basin in Argentina. The authors "proposed" the new genus Neuquenia, emended Odontochitina and introduced the binomials of some associated dinocysts, none of which were validly published in the abstract volume.

Susana Palamarczuk analyzed the dinocysts of a 90 m Maastrichtian interval of mud-/claystones of the Jaguel Fm., Neuquen Prov., Argentina. Changes in species diversity and abundance clearly track fluctuations in sea level, that are in concert with similar changes observed in the Western Interior Seaway of the USA, and other northern localities.

Javier Helenes and A. del Valle-Reyes defined four dinocyst assemblages in > the 3000 m thick strata deposited in the southern part of the Gulf of Mexico since the Late Oligocene, each of which has a distinct environmental signature. The Polysphaeridium assemblage (Upper Miocene-Pleistocene; inner to middle neritic) also contains common Lingulodinium and Spiniferites. The Impagidinium assemblage (Middle - Upper Miocene; middle to outer neritic), normally sparse, also contains Nematosphaeropsis and Operculodinium. The Selenopemphix assemblage (Lower Miocene; inner to middle neritic), normally sparse, also contains Polysphaeridium, Lejeunecysta and Operculodinium. The Homotryblium assemblage (Upper Oligocene; shoreline to inner neritic) also contains Cordosphaeridium and Glaphyrocysta.

Cristian Vallejo, Peter Hochuli and Wilfried Winkler reported on an analysis of the Late Albian - Campanian Napo Group in the Oriente Basin of Ecuador. This shallow marginal marine packet of strata represents a sedimentary sequence, and includes source rocks, sandstone reservoirs and limestones. Spore/pollen, dinocysts and nannoplankton analysis reveals several hiatuses. Fossil evidence, with other data, allows reconstruction of a sequence stratigraphic framework. The hydrocarbons found in this well are more mature than the in-situ immature source rock, and must have been generated elsewhere.

Oscar Yepes correlated dinocysts from 6 Upper Campanian-Maastrichtian sections in Colombia and western Venezuela, and discussed the biostratigraphic and sequence stratigraphic implications of that study. The boundary between these two stages is at the highest occurrence of Trichodinium castanea and the lowest of Phelodinium tricuspe, Yolkinigymnium lanceolatum and Hafniasphaera fluens. The K/T boundary is not exposed in these sections. Dinocysts tended to be more abundant at the base of each of several upwards coarsening cycles.

Jason Crux et al., all employees of PDVSA (Venezuela), revised and calibrated Muller et al.'s pollen/spore zones of the Paleogene of Venezuela, many of which were based on more than one datum - which resulted in overlap of zones. The revised spore/pollen zones then were tied to the marine time scale and some magnetostratigraphy. This correlation demonstrates that there is a hiatus between Paleocene Zone 16 and early Eocene Zone 17, with much of the Late Paleocene missing over most of western Venezuela.

Carlos Jaramillo, F. Oboh-Ikuenobe and G. Obi studied the Paleocene-Eocene transition in southern Nigeria and central Colombia. Diversity, composition and structure of pollen/spore floras were analysed with a number of different techniques. Lower to middle Eocene strata contain much higher diversity than upper Paleocene strata, and have higher alpha and beta diversities. During this period, the equatorial climate became wetter; which apparently resulted in tropical floras very similar to the present tropical rainforests. No earlier tropical rainforests have been documented so far.

Javier Helenes and Iraida Paredes documented the late Middle Eocene age (NP 16;42.5-40.5 Ma) of the Gobernador and Pague formations in western Venezuela with well preserved palynomorphs and nannofossils, and placed the underlying regional unconformity and subsequent rapid deposition, into the sequence-stratigraphic cycles, as these are affected by the collision of the Caribbean plate with the northwestern border of South America.

Alan Graham analyzed a 6-7 Ma old (Miocene-Pliocene) assemblage of fossil spores/pollen and leaf fossils, from a 3600 m high locality in the Eastern Cordillera in the Bolivian Andes, which indicated that from 1/3 to 1/2 of the uplift of the Eastern Cordillera had occurred by the beginning of the Pliocene.

The Wednesday session started off with the presentation by Sikora and Stein, mentioned earlier. Jeffrey Richardson applied palynology to solve a long-standing problem in the correlation of prograding wedges of deltaic facies in the (Lower Carboniferous) Borden Fm. in Kentucky and Indiana, which is subdivided into different members in different areas. He subdivided the study area into four Primary Depositional Centers, which were sampled for microspores. These can be correlated with Carboniferous biozones. In PDC-I (northeastern Kentucky) the PC zone (Tn3a) is defined by the FAD of Spelaeotriletes pretiosus. In PDC-II (Tn3b; south central Kentucky) the miospores represent the upper part of the PC Biozone. In the westernmost localities (PDC-IV; Tn3c) the miospores represent the CM and Pu Biozones. In south-central Indiana most sections represent the CM and Pu biozones (the CM zone is defined by the FAD of Schopfites claviger). The Pu Biozone if defined by the FAD of Lycospora pusilla, which also marks the base of the Visean (Vn1). These PDCs are part of a single sequence, but represent different time-transgressive progradational phases. Jeffrey combined sequence stratigraphic concepts with miospore stratigraphic data to resolve the spatial relationships of the different units of the Borden Formation.

Jim Riding reported on the incoherence of the total stratigraphic ranges of each of a number of cosmopolitan dinocysts. For example, the range tops of Nannoceratopsis pellucida and Rigaudella aemula are significantly younger in Australia than in Europe. Macrofaunal correlations are significantly more problematic than palynological ones (e.g., molluscs exhibit more endemism than palynomorphs). New methods, like generic ranges and statistical analyses of assemblage characterization may be useful in long-distance palynological correlations.

Doug Nichols, M. Matsukawa and M. Ito analysed deposits in the Choyr Basin in the Gobi Desert, and concluded that the currently recognized three formations are but different facies of a single basin-fill event. The presence of a primitive Asteropollis and rare tricolpate angiosperm pollen indicate a middle to late Albian age for this formation, which, for clarity's sake, should receive a new name.

Peter McLaughlin and Richard Benson presented an application of spore/pollen biostratigraphy that improves the correlation of aquifer units in non-marine facies of the Potomac Fm. (Barremian-Cenomanian), Delaware coastal plain. The new palynological framework (mostly based on angiosperm pollen, including many forms defined by Doyle and Robbins 1977) includes a major Cretaceous unconformity that was never recognized in the seismic-based model so far applied, as well as a new log correlation datum that represents a major shift in depositional systems.

Yow-yuh Chen demonstrated a lineage of eight species of Amphorula from the Valanginian of the Morondova Basin, that resembles a lineage of the same age from Australia. Six zones are recognized, reflecting the rapid evolution in this group (seven new species will be proposed). Amphorula palmula should not be transferred to Systematophora, as it has semi-circular processes, which is a trait restricted to Amphorula.

James Eldrett, Ian Harding and John Firth reported on a high-resolution study of (cores) from Sites 913B and 338 in the Norwegian-Greenland Sea, where calcareous microfossils are dissolved, but magnetostratigraphic data allow correlation with the standard NP zonation. Several age-diagnostic assemblages are present, and will allow better understanding of the nature and timing of the climatic and environmental changes around the Eocene-Oligocene boundary, and its precise biostratigraphic position.

John Wrenn and J. DiBenedetto described a scant assemblage of spores/pollen from the Scenic Member, Brulé Fm., Badlands National Park, South Dakota, which represents a riparian setting in a dryland region; the few palynomorphs studied were mostly derived from animal coprolites and ephemeral lacustrine limestone, and date back to Chron N13 (N3).

Grace Parsons, James White and Geoff Norris are in the process of defining the biostratigraphic utility of a small number of (very) small triprojectate pollen species that occur in the (late) Paleogene strata of the Mackenzie Delta region of northern Canada.

Robert Cushman made a detailed study of the paleoenvironment of the upper unit of the Fossil Butte Member, Eocene Green River Formation, Wyoming. The lake was filled in an evaporitic, fairly dry climate. Yet, the occurrence of Platycarya suggests a climate of high humidity. A closer examination of the geological context of the sedimentation indicates high-frequency alternating dry-wet cycles, resulting in a typical under-filled lake deposition. Pterocarya would migrate into the area during the wet cycles.

Francisca Oboh et al. are investigating evidence for the existence of seaway links between the Tethyan (Gulf) and Boreal (Arctic) seas, during the several Upper Albian to Lower Cenomanian transgressive-regressive cycles. A multidisciplinary approach (sedimentology, micropaleontology, palynology and chemostratigraphy) is employed to four stratigraphic sections in New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming. Palynofacies helps to recognize sequence boundaries in these well-layered rocks that extend laterally for up to 200 kilometers.

Daniel Michoux (of TotalFinaELF) et al. shared initial results of a comprehensive study of the dinocysts from well calibrated sections of the Late Paleocene to Miocene (Langhian; NN5) strata in the Aquitaine Basin. These will be compared with assemblages of similar age from other parts of Europe.

John Wrenn, Mike Hannah and Graeme Wilson presented two consecutive progress reports on the Cape Roberts Project, which is designed to investigate the tectonic and climatic evolution of eastern Antarctic from latest Cretaceous to Oligocene time. There were several surprises: the presence of numerous dinoflagellates (more than 20 endemic new species, mostly of the Lejeunecysta type); a strong unconformity (Oligocene overlying Devonian); the fact that the known Eocene Antarctic dinocysts are autotrophic, whereas those from CRP are from heterotrophic species - indicating a major change in the trophic structure near the Eocene-Oligocene boundary. Though the species are different, a bipolar distribution among these protists is now appearing.

Eddie Robertson went back to his old graduate sections, and found more information, this time around, for a firmer foundation of the Paleocene-Eocene section. He listed a large number of species to support his zonations.

Aureal Cross had a steady stream of visitors to his poster plotting the more significant highlights of progress in palynology from 1833 (Witham) and 1836 (Ehrenberg) to the present.

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This article first appeared in CAP Newsletter 24(2):8-12, 2001.