Pollen atlas from bat guano deposits in southeastern Amazonia

The botanical literature lacks pollen resources such as atlases and identification keys for bat guano deposits. To address this gap, our dataset describes modern pollen and spore assemblages from five caves in the Carajás region, southeastern Amazonia. A comprehensive atlas featuring illustrations and detailed descriptions of pollen and spores was created using both original and published data. It aims to simplify the identification of various pollen and spore taxa within bat guano deposits, and features light micrographs and descriptions of 105 pollen taxa, including 81 arboreal and shrub taxa, 11 lianas, seven herbaceous taxa, three palm taxa, and three ferns. Among the total pollen assemblage, entomophilous plant taxa represented 42.8%, followed by wind-pollinated taxa at 9.5% and bat-pollinated taxa at 7.6%. Our data indicate that bat guano can provide valuable information on plant taxa that are underrepresented in more traditional pollen sampling sites such as peat bogs and lake sediments. Abbreviations: D: diameter; P: polar view; E: equatorial view