Discrimination of depositional seasonality of tidal flat sediment in northern Jiangsu Province, China

12 consecutive monthly sediment samples were collected from the tidal flat surface in Dafeng County, Jiangsu province. Palynological analysis of these samples indicates that seasonal palynological features of the tidal flat sediment are distinct and some palynological indices such asspecies percentages of Arboreal and Herbaceous pollen and spore are good indicators for discriminating the depositional seasonality of the tidal flat sediment. Sedimentary sequences formed between 1984 and 1994 were used to verify this method. The result proposes that this method can be applied to muddy flat and the species percentage of arboreal pollen is the best indicator for the seasonality study of the tidal flat sediment.