Environmental changes in the wetlands of southern Iraq based on palynological studies: Comments
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COMMENT
Environmental changes in the wetlands of southern Iraq based on palynological studies: Comments Arun Kumar
Received: 4 April 2014 / Accepted: 10 April 2014 # Saudi Society for Geosciences 2014
Abstract This paper suggests that the fungal fruiting bodies identified by Al-Ameri and Jassim (Arab J Geosci 4:443– 461, 2011) as Plochmopellinites (Figures 6–10) is a thecamoebian taxa Arcella discoides, likewise Miliolinites nivalis (Figures 6–14) is another thecamoebian taxa Centropyxis aculeata. This conclusion is primarily based on the remarkable morphological similarity between these specimens illustrated and described by Al-Ameri and Jassim (Arab J Geosci 4:443–461, 2011) and the well-known thecamoebian taxa mentioned in this paper. These misidentified ‘fruiting fungal bodies’ were reported from the environments where thecamoebians are well known to inhabit. Thecamoebians are, by now, known to occur in the palynological slides and have become an important constituent of the non-pollen palynomorphs (NPP). Palynologists too study them as they are excellent proxies for Quaternary climatic and environmental changes. Keywords Palynology . Wetlands . Thecamoebians . Environmental change . Iraq
Al-Ameri and Jassim (2011) published a palynological study of the wetlands in southern Iraq. They isolated a diverse assemblage of pollen and non-pollen palynomorphs (NPP) from ten 1-m shallow cores collected from the marshes and the shallow open water wetlands. Additionally, they also analyzed 160 soil samples from eight cores collected from the wetland areas which dried during the 1990s. This dataset
A. Kumar (*) Department of Earth Sciences, Ottawa-Carleton Geoscience Centre, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada e-mail: [email protected]
was used to assess Pleistocene-Holocene changes in vegetation, ecology, and climate of the wetlands in southern Iraq. Several pollen, spores, and non-pollen palynomorphs (NPP) were described and illustrated in this paper. That included 15 specimens of fungal remains illustrated in figure 6. The two forms, Plochmopellinites (Figures 6– 10) and Miliolinites nivalis (Figures 6–14), are actually thecamoebians and were wrongly identified as fungal fruiting bodies. This communication provides a brief account of thecamoebians and correctly identifies these two forms. Thecamoebians are clonal, predominantly freshwater protozoans, but also occur in brackish water environments and moist soils (Medioli and Scott 1983). They inhabit a wide range of terrestrial environments in diverse climatic zones, ranging from tropical (Dalby et al. 2000) to arctic latitudes (Dallimore et al. 1997). They have an amoeboid sarcodine cell with pseudopods. They are mostly simple sac-like tests, which is either flattened or rounded with an aperture located on or near the tapered end. They may also be a beret-shaped test with an invaginated aperture on the ventral side which is more or less flattened. Tests are either secreted (autogenous) or agglutinated (xenogenous) with sand particles or diatom frustules
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