A high resolution record of vegetation and environmental variation through the last ∼25,000 years in the western part of the Chinese Loess Plateau

Wu, H.N.; Ma, Yongjing; Feng, Zhantao; Sun, Anyang; Zhang, C.J.; Li, F.; Kuang, J.

doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2008.12.023

Cited by 28 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Our pollen results all show that herbs, rather than trees or shrubs, were dominant on the Loess Plateau in both the cold-dry period and the warm-humid period, which is consistent with pollen data from many other loess sections (Sun et al 1997;Li, Zhou & Dodson 2003;Jiang & Ding 2005;Tang & An 2007;Shang & Li 2010). It should be noted that the pollen records from several sections in river valleys indicate that trees were abundant in the Holocene (An, Feng & Tang 2003;Wu et al 2009;Shang & Li 2010). However, these sections are all located in the riparian zones of first-order tributaries of the Yellow River.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

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Chinese Loess Plateau vegetation since the Last Glacial Maximum and its implications for vegetation restoration

Jiang

Cheng

Yang

et al. 2013

Journal of Applied Ecology

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Summary China has been investing heavily in afforestation programmes to control soil erosion on the vast Chinese Loess Plateau (CLP). This massive afforestation has led to a considerable increase in forest and a decrease in dust‐storm activity in some areas. However, there have also been some negative outcomes, including low tree survival rate, increased soil erosion, exacerbated water shortages and deep soil desiccation. One important explanation for these is the use of inappropriate species because of a lack of knowledge of the natural vegetation in the area, which has been largely destroyed by human activities. Natural vegetation in the most recent warm period (the early–mid‐Holocene) can serve as an analogue for the ongoing greening programme, particularly under the global warming scenario. In this study, the natural vegetation of the CLP since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) was reconstructed from pollen analyses of six loess sections. Our results show that herbs were dominant both in the cold–dry LGM and the warm–humid early–mid‐Holocene. During the LGM, vegetation in the north‐western CLP mainly consisted of Artemisia, Echinops‐type, Taraxacum‐type and Chenopodiaceae, and vegetation in the south‐eastern CLP was characterized by the same types but with a slightly higher incidence of Poaceae. During the early–mid‐Holocene, vegetation was more diverse, with Poaceae, Artemisia, Echinops‐type and Chenopodiaceae dominant in the north‐west, and Pinus, Corylus, Poaceae, Artemisia and Selaginella sinensis dominant in the south‐east. Synthesis and applications. The ecological restoration of herbs should be considered a priority, although trees and shrubs have been prioritized previously. To balance environmental conservation and farm‐income support objectives, we suggest planting Corylus, Juglans and Selaginella sinensis in the south‐eastern Chinese Loess Plateau (CLP) because of their edible value or medicinal properties. Given the considerable prevalence of Selaginella sinensis and the Asteraceae family in the pollen records, and their useful medicinal effects, the CLP has great potential to be a centre for Chinese medicinal herb production.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

“…It should be noted that the pollen records from several sections in river valleys indicate that trees were abundant in the Holocene (An, Feng & Tang ; Wu et al . ; Shang & Li ). However, these sections are all located in the riparian zones of first‐order tributaries of the Yellow River.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chinese Loess Plateau vegetation since the Last Glacial Maximum and its implications for vegetation restoration

Jiang

Cheng

Yang

et al. 2013

Journal of Applied Ecology

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“…The deposition of eolian sand was also attributed to dry climate conditions under a very low or even desiccated lake (Huang et al, 2009). The eolian-dominated environment around 32e18 ka was also inferred by pollen assemblage from two lacustrine-wetland sequences in the western part of the Chinese Loess Plateau (Feng et al, 2007;Wu et al, 2009). Under dry conditions, salt lake area in the western Qaidam Basin had extended at large scale around 31e26 ka (Zheng et al, 1989), and deserts in northern and northwestern China had expanded during 26e16 ka (Lu et al, 2013).…”

Section: Short Core Records and Solute Budgetmentioning

confidence: 90%

Lake Qinghai sediment geochemistry linked to hydroclimate variability since the last glacial

Jin

et al. 2015

Quaternary Science Reviews

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“…6a). The authors inferred that these were related to the reduced evaporation rates during glacial times (Liu et al, 2008a;Wu et al, 2009). Moderate dry conditions were largely recorded between 15 and 12 cal.…”

Section: Spatial and Temporal Climate Patterns In Monsoonal Central Amentioning

confidence: 99%

Asynchronous evolution of the Indian and East Asian Summer Monsoon indicated by Holocene moisture patterns in monsoonal central Asia

Wang

Liu

Herzschuh

2010

Earth-Science Reviews

293

111

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a b s t r a c t a r t i c l e i n f oThe numerical meta-analysis of 92 proxy records (72 sites) of moisture and/or temperature change confirms earlier findings that the dominant trends of climatic evolution in monsoonal central Asia since the Last Glacial roughly parallel changes in Northern Hemisphere summer insolation, i.e. the period following the Last Glacial Maximum was characterized by dry and cold conditions until 15 cal. kyr BP, followed by a warm, wet period coincident with the Bølling/Allerød warm period and terminated by a cold, dry reversal during the Younger Dryas period. After an abrupt increase at the start of the Holocene, warm and wet conditions prevailed until ca. 4 cal. kyr BP when moisture levels and temperatures started to decrease. Ordination of moisture records reveals strong spatial heterogeneity in moisture evolution during the last 10 cal. kyr. The Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM) areas (northern India, Tibetan Plateau and southwest China) exhibit maximum wet conditions during the early Holocene, while many records from the area of the East Asian Summer Monsoon indicate relatively dry conditions, especially in north-central China where the maximum moisture levels occurred during the mid-Holocene. We assign such phenomena to strengthened Hadley Circulation centered over the Tibetan Plateau during the early Holocene which resulted in subsidence in the East Asian monsoonal regions leading to relatively dry conditions. Our observations of the asynchronous nature of the two Asian monsoon subsystems on millennial time scales have also been observed on annual time-scales as well as implied through the spatial analysis of vertical air motion patterns after strong ascending airflows over the Tibetan Plateau area that were calculated from NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data for the last 30 years. Analogous with the early Holocene, the enhancement of the ISM in a 'future warming world' will result in an increase in the asynchronous nature of the monsoon subsystems; this trend is already observed in the meteorological data from the last 15 years.

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A high resolution record of vegetation and environmental variation through the last ∼25,000 years in the western part of the Chinese Loess Plateau

Cited by 28 publications

References 24 publications

Chinese Loess Plateau vegetation since the Last Glacial Maximum and its implications for vegetation restoration

Chinese Loess Plateau vegetation since the Last Glacial Maximum and its implications for vegetation restoration

Lake Qinghai sediment geochemistry linked to hydroclimate variability since the last glacial

Asynchronous evolution of the Indian and East Asian Summer Monsoon indicated by Holocene moisture patterns in monsoonal central Asia

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