A survey on pollen dispersal in the western Pacific Ocean and its paleoclimatological significance as a proxy for variation of the Asian winter monsoon.

Pollen grains deposited in marine sediments are transported from land to sea by wind or surface water flows. We analyzed pollen collected from the air and seawater from the coast of the Yellow Sea near China and into the western Pacific Ocean between December 2008 and January 2009 during the cruise 'KX08-973'. Results showed that abundant pollen grains of Artemisia and Chenopodiaceae were probably transported to the continental shelf of the East China Sea, the East Philippine Sea and the equatorial regions of the Pacific Ocean by the winter monsoon. Some pollen may have even traveled over 2000 km from the East Asia continent to the tropical Pacific Ocean. However, a gradual decline of temperate components and an increase in tropical components was observed towards the tropical regions. Fern spores were rare in the air samples, but much more abundant in seawater samples, even though they were collected in nearly the same areas, which indicates that most fern spores were carried to the ocean by flowing water. These results suggest that the winter monsoon may be the major pollen carrier and transporter in the study area during winter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]