Modern pollen fall in the Itutinga-Pilões Unit (Parque Estadual Serra do Mar), SP, Brazil

Abstract

The Itutinga-Piloes Unit of the Serra do Mar State Park in Sao Paulo state is located in the municipality of Sao Bernardo do Campo, at km 35 on the Anchieta Highway, south-east of Sao Paulo’s Metropolitan Region, approximately between the 23°45′ and 24°00′S latitude and between 46°15′ and 46°35′W longitude west of Greenwich. Artificial pollen traps were installed inside the park among open areas and forests. Pollen rain analysis revealed that there were 31 families, represented by 45 different pollen and spores morphotypes (including non-local taxa); out of these, 57% were arboreal pollen grains, 15% non-arboreal pollen grains and 28% monilophyte spores. Whereas the arboreal pollen was predominant in forest areas, the non-arboreal pollen ones were predominant in open areas, corroborating, therefore, with the places where the traps were installed. Most of the families and genus of plants found in the pollen rain in the park agree with the botanical data reported in the literature, including exotic plant such as Pinus L. and Eucalyptus L'Her genera, which are in reforestation areas in the region. Betulaceae also occurs in the modern pollen rain record and is a native plant from the Andean forest, which is very common in Quaternary sediments in the southern region of Brazil as a consequence of wind pollination dispersion over long distances.