Doctoral Dissertation Research: Modern Pollen Spectra from Coasts and Lowlands of the Dominican Republic and Their Application to the Interpretation of Sedimentary Pollen Records

本博士论文研究项目将通过分析表层土壤和沉积物中的现代花粉来研究新热带低地和沿海植被是否由花粉类群的独特组合所代表。 虽然过去的植被，气候和环境的重建已成功地从热带沉积记录，现代花粉记录的缺乏限制了花粉-植被关系的知识，并限制了热带沉积花粉的解释。 在热带美洲大陆进行了一些现代花粉研究，但在加勒比岛屿上进行的研究很少。 此外，现代花粉研究检查热带干燥或季节性植被类型，很少有研究成熟的低地季节性干燥森林的光谱。 这个博士论文研究项目将集中在现代花粉光谱的低地和沿海多米尼加共和国，其中包括在季节性干燥的森林网站。 这位博士生及其同事将从各种植被类型中收集现代花粉样本，包括草地、莎草湿地、红树林、沿海灌木、低地季节性干燥森林、潮湿的低地半落叶林和潮湿森林。 将使用标准技术处理样品，通过光学显微镜对花粉和孢子进行计数。 判别分析将用于将花粉数据分类为代表植被类型的组，并允许生成预测模型。 然后，该模型将适用于解释化石花粉组合从以前收集的沉积物芯（和未来的）在多米尼加共和国西南部。该项目将是对大安的列斯群岛沿海和低地植被现代花粉光谱的首次研究。它将有助于了解加勒比地区的植被类型，包括正在迅速从加勒比地区消失的季节性干旱热带森林的植物区系组成和多样性。 该项目将加强对伊斯帕尼奥拉岛和整个加勒比地区的低地和沿海湖泊沉积花粉记录的解释，从而更好地了解加勒比长期植被和气候动态。项目成果将有助于保护多米尼加共和国的自然资源。 现代花粉数据和元数据将提交给拉丁美洲花粉数据库，该数据库收集了可免费下载的化石和现代花粉数据，从而促进其他研究人员未来的研究。 作为博士论文研究改进奖，该项目将提供支持，使有前途的学生能够建立独立的研究生涯

This doctoral dissertation research project will examine whether neotropical lowland and coastal vegetation is represented by unique assemblages of pollen taxa through analysis of modern pollen from surface soils and sediments. While reconstructions of past vegetation, climate, and environment have been successfully derived from tropical sedimentary records, the lack of modern pollen records has limited knowledge about pollen-vegetation relationships and restricted the interpretation of tropical sedimentary pollen. Several modern pollen studies have been conducted in mainland tropical America, but few studies have been conducted on Caribbean islands. Furthermore, of the modern pollen studies examining tropical dry or seasonal vegetation types, few have examined spectra from mature lowland seasonally-dry forests. This doctoral dissertation research project will focus on the modern pollen spectra of lowland and coastal Dominican Republic, which includes sites in seasonally-dry forests. The doctoral student and colleagues will collect modern pollen samples from a variety of vegetation types, including grasslands, sedge wetlands, mangroves, coastal scrubs, lowland seasonally dry forests, moist lowland semi-deciduous forests, and humid forests. The samples will be processed using standard techniques with pollen and spores counted via light microscopy. Discriminant analysis will be used to classify pollen data into groups representing vegetation types and allow the generation of a predictive model. This model then will be applied to the interpretation of fossil pollen assemblages from previously collected sediment cores (and future ones) in the southwestern Dominican Republic. This project will be the first study of modern pollen spectra from coastal and lowland vegetation in the Greater Antilles. It will contribute to knowledge about Caribbean vegetation types, including the floristic composition and diversity of seasonally-dry tropical forests, which are rapidly disappearing from the Caribbean region. This project will strengthen the interpretation of sedimentary pollen records from lowland and coastal lakes on Hispaniola and throughout the Caribbean, thus providing improved understanding of Caribbean vegetation and climate dynamics across long time scales. Project results will assist in the preservation of natural resources of the Dominican Republic. Modern pollen data and metadata will be submitted to the Latin American Pollen Database, a collection of free-to-download fossil and modern pollen data, thereby facilitating future research by other researchers. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this project will provide support to enable a promising student to establish an independent research career