I am seeking information regarding dinoflagellate cysts from sediments. Is it relevant to sieve the cysts with 100 and 10 micron (specifically) mesh? If yes, ain't we be loosing a significant amount of cysts while sieving it via 10 micron mesh whose size falls in the range of 10 micron or little less.
In palynology normally the standard sieve mesh size is 15 micron, also for studying for dinoflagellate cysts. 100 microns is too big, you will loose too much material. Samples without sieving have a lot of organic mud which makes it very difficult to study.
Wolfram Michael Kürschner Thank you. However, our question is while using a 10 micron mesh, we lose quite a lot of smaller cysts. Some dinoflagellate cysts are either around 10 micron or even smaller. We find in our samples a significant portion of smaller cysts and hence would like to know if this is done just void the organics. However, I think it would be the best practice to do with and without using the 10 micron mesh and see the quantitative difference. 100 micron mesh is not used for dinoflagellate cyst anyway since the range is well below this level. Thanks again.
Well, then it is better to study the samples without sieving but it will be difficult to work your way through the organic mud. Otherwise a 7 micron sieve is maybe a good option for your work. best regards, Wolfram
10 microns seems ok to me. I guess it all depends on what amount of pollen and spores, amorphous organic matter and fungi etc. you have in your sample. And sometimes it is good to do a round of ultrasonication to have clean cysts. All depends on your research question. Are these small cysts of special interest to you?
Wolfram Michael Kürschner thanks a lot. Yes, I agree with you that there are some particles, but it's not that bad. So that ensures we don't miss any smaller cyst in the samples.
Kenneth Mertens Thanks a lot. Yes, sonication helps to remove the attached particles. Our interest is mainly the dinoflagellate cysts and accordingly we follow a protocol to process the samples for dinoflagellate cysts. In the earlier studies the samples were always sieved with 10 micron mesh which I feel might have removed some small dinoflagellate cysts. We will do without and with sieve and then we will get an idea. Thanks again, Best,
As the Paleogene is concernés, we use à cyst sorting out by a sieving at 60 and 10 mlcrons combining à good cleaning for photographes as well as a right separation with organic particules facilitating the diagnoses
As far we know, that majority of dinocyst above 10 um in size, and we used 10um mesh for Palaeozoic, Mesozoic and Tertiary palynomorphs and it works alot. Below this size of mesh may be your dinocyst and other palynomorphs will be clouded by the fine organic mater, and will be difficult to work with...
It is so difficult, try to use point counting for a polished slab
Thank you Wolfram Michael Kürschner Kenneth Mertens Ali Daw Mehdawi Mamoun Ubaid Mohammed Jean-Jacques Châteauneuf for your time and valuable comments.
I'm facing the same problem, sample from middle and upper Jurassic with almost nothing, we have benn using 15 micron sieve, should we use more tight one.
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