Abstract Acid-free palynological processing was performed on Permian material from a borehole of the southern Galilee Basin, eastern Australia, to test the efficacy compared to standard processing techniques. Both techniques yielded well-preserved assemblages of terrestrial and aquatic palynomorphs. The proportion of phytoclasts was much higher than in samples that underwent standard acid processing, while spores and pollen grains occur in lower abundances. A slightly higher species count was gained from samples with acid-free treatment but biostratigraphical index taxa were present in both sets of samples and, in general, the assemblages appeared to be quantitatively comparable. To improve the efficacy for future application, in particular more accurate statistical analyses with higher counts, absolute abundance calculations using a Lycopodium spike and refinement of the acid-free technique using hydrogen peroxide treatments, multiple density separation steps or sonication during sieving are suggested to remove phytoclasts. Further work is required to determine if the higher abundances of phytoplankton are influenced by the processing technique or if they better reflect a true proportion within a given sample.

中文翻译：

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无酸孢粉处理：二叠纪案例研究

摘要 对来自澳大利亚东部加利利盆地南部钻孔的二叠纪材料进行无酸孢粉处理，以测试与标准处理技术相比的功效。这两种技术都产生了保存完好的陆生和水生孢粉型组合。植物碎屑的比例远高于经过标准酸处理的样品，而孢子和花粉粒的丰度较低。从无酸处理的样品中获得了略高的物种计数，但生物地层指数分类群存在于两组样品中，并且总体而言，这些组合在数量上似乎具有可比性。为了提高未来应用的功效，特别是使用更高计数进行更准确的统计分析，建议使用石松子尖峰进行绝对丰度计算，并使用过氧化氢处理、多密度分离步骤或在筛分过程中进行超声处理来改进无酸技术，以去除植株。需要进一步的工作来确定较高的浮游植物丰度是否受到加工技术的影响，或者它们是否更好地反映了给定样本中的真实比例。