Holocene vegetation and climate of the Alashan Plateau, NW China, reconstructed from pollen data

Herzschuh, Ulrike; Tarasov, Pavel E.; Wünnemann, Bernd; Hartmann, Kai

doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2004.04.001

Cited by 216 publications

(161 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…4400-3900 cal yr BP), was widely present in the western Gansu and Inner Mongolia (Press of Cultural Relics, 1999). The most recent change observed in lake sediments on desert margins are in large part caused by human activities, e.g., degradation of vegetation due to grazing, and probably not related to a drought phase as assumed in various publications (e.g., Herzschuh et al, 2004;An et al, 2006;Chen et al, 2008;Hartmann and Wünnemann, 2009). Given these changes and concerns, there is also an urgent social and political need to enhance our understanding of dryland environmental systems and how these systems have been and will be affected by dryland societies in the past and into the future.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

“…Radiocarbon chronology, lithology and pollen assemblages from a core from Juyanze Lake, located northwest of the Badain Jaran Desert, while not inconsistent with the identified paleosol dating gaps, shows apparently dry conditions and/or low lake levels between 7000 and 5000 cal yr BP, suggesting a distinct mid-Holocene drought . A second interpretation of pollen in the same core by Herzschuh et al (2004) shows a significantly longer interval of dry climate between 10,700 and 5400 cal yr BP followed by favorable wet conditions between 5400 and 3900 cal yr BP and a final desiccation after 1700 cal yr BP. Hartmann and Wünnemann (2009) refined this earlier work and also concluded that a major dry climate interval occurred between 7500 and 5400 cal yr BP.…”

Section: The Holocene Periodmentioning

confidence: 97%

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Hydrological and Climatic Changes in Deserts of China since the Late Pleistocene

2010

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Large areas in western China were wetlands or less arid between 40 and 30 ka, corresponding to the "Greatest Lake Period" on the adjacent Tibetan Plateau. During the last glacial maximum, some of these western Chinese deserts again experienced wetter conditions; however, at the same time the sandy lands in the eastern Chinese desert belt experienced an activation of aeolian dunes. While interpretations of the midHolocene environment in the deserts of China are controversial, it is quite likely that it was more humid not only in the eastern areas influenced by monsoon climate systems but also in the western deserts where moisture is currently associated with westerlies. Evaluation of lacustrine records in the lakes recharged by dryland rivers and the complex interactions of these systems, as well as other paleoenvironmental proxies such as the Artemisia/Chenopodiaceae ratio, should be interpreted with greater caution. Facing the highlighted uncertainties in our understanding of climate changes in Chinese deserts, it is hoped that this special issue will improve our knowledge considerably.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Section: The Holocene Periodmentioning

confidence: 97%

Hydrological and Climatic Changes in Deserts of China since the Late Pleistocene

2010

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“…There exist rather extreme differences in the recorded Holocene optimum even when the investigated sites are located close to each other. For example, palaeoenvironmental reconstructions derived from the Eastern Juyanze record (Hartmann et al, 2003;Herzschuh et al, 2004) suggest that dry conditions with desert vegetation and low lake levels prevailed on the Alashan Plateau during the first half of the Holocene, while the Holocene optimum occurred during the late mid-Holocene. In contrast, in the central Qilian Mountains, which are located 400 km further to the south, the highest lake levels and maximum forest vegetation were reconstructed for the early Holocene, while the site is characterized by lake-level lowering and alpine vegetation since the mid-Holocene Mischke et al, 2005).…”

Section: Moisture Evolution During the Holocenementioning

confidence: 99%

Palaeo-moisture evolution in monsoonal Central Asia during the last 50,000 years

Herzschuh

2006

Quaternary Science Reviews

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717

435

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The late-Quaternary climate history of monsoonal Central Asia was inferred from 75 palaeoclimatic records which provide information about moisture conditions in the last 50 ka (or part of this period).Wet conditions occurred during middle and late Marine Isotope Stage 3, while the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) was characterized by dry climate conditions in the region. A stepwise climate amelioration is suggested by the climate records following the LGM. Several climate signals of this period, which were reported from high-latitude ice core records, are preserved in archives from monsoonal Central Asia as well.During the early Holocene, high effective moisture was inferred from most records from the area dominated by the Indian Monsoon (e.g. the Tibetan Plateau) suggesting that Holocene optimal climate conditions occurred there during this period. In contrast, areas which are dominated by the South-East Asian monsoon (SE Monsoon) and the Westerlies (in north-western and north-central China, Mongolia) do not uniformly show an early Holocene climate optimum. For this area optimal conditions prevailed during the mid-Holocene. These apparent contradictions can possibly be explained by the regional uplift and descent of air masses in the Holocene. During the early Holocene, strengthened insolation possibly caused an enhanced low-level convergence over the Tibetan Plateau which led to the intensification of the summer monsoon. The strong air uplift caused intensified precipitation and air divergence in the upper troposphere over the Tibetan Plateau. The areas adjacent to the north therefore experienced an intensified descent of air masses and consequently increased aridity. The majority of the palaeoclimatic records suggest reduced effective moisture since the late Holocene in the region. r

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“…The modern pollen data were derived from a previous surface pollen dataset from China that includes 2324 pollen records (Chen et al, 2010) and 110 recently published pollen records of the Alashan Plateau of western Inner Mongolia (Herzschuh et al, 2004), the Qilian Mountains of the northeastern Tibetan Plateau , and the Hengduan Mountains of the southeastern Tibetan Plateau (Kramer et al, 2010). In total, 2434 modern pollen records covering most regions of China were included in this present study (Fig.…”

Section: Pollen Datasetmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biome distribution over the last 22,000yr in China

Cao

Jeltsch

et al. 2014

Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology

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Patterns of past vegetation changes over time and space can help facilitate better understanding of the interactions among climate, ecosystem, and human impact. Biome changes in China over the last 22,000 yr (calibrated radiocarbon date, a BP) were numerically reconstructed by using a standard approach of pollen-plant functional type-biome assignment (biomization). The biomization procedure involves pollen data from 2434 surface sites and 228 fossil sites with a high quality of pollen count and 14 C dating, 51 natural and three anthropogenic plant functional types (PFTs), as well as 19 natural and one anthropogenic biome. Surface pollen-based reconstruction of modern natural biome patterns is in good agreement (74.4%) with actual vegetation distribution in China. However, modern large-scale anthropogenic biome reconstruction has not been successful based on the current setup of three anthropogenic PFTs (plantation, secondary, and disturbed PFT) because of the limitation of non-species level pollen identification and the difficulty in the clear assignment of disturbed PFTs. The non-anthropogenic biome distributions of 44 time slices at 500-year intervals show large-scale discrepant and changed vegetation patterns from the last glacial maximum (LGM) to the Holocene throughout China. From 22 ka BP to 19 ka BP, temperate grassland, xerophytic shrubland, and desert dominated northern China, whereas cold or cool forests flourished in central China. Warm-temperate evergreen forests were restricted to far southern China, and tropical forests were absent. During 18.5 ka BP to 12 ka BP, cold, cool, and dry biomes extended to some parts of northern, western, and eastern China. Warm-temperate evergreen and mixed forests gradually expanded to occupy the whole of southern China. A slight northward shift of forest biomes occurred from 15 ka BP to 12 ka BP. During 11.5 ka BP to 9 ka BP, temperate grassland and shrubland gradually stretched to northern and western China. Cold and cool forests widely expanded into northern and central China, as well as in the northern margin of South China along with temperate deciduous forest. Since the early mid-Holocene (approximately 8.5 ka BP to 5.5 ka BP), all forest biomes shifted northward at the expense of herbaceous and shrubby biomes. Simultaneously, cold and cool forest biomes occupied the marginal areas of the Tibetan Plateau and the high mountains in western China. During the middle to late Holocene, from 5 ka to the present, temperate grassland and xerophytic shrubland expanded to the south and east, whereas temperate deciduous forests slightly shifted southward. After 3 ka BP, forest biomes were absent in western China and on the Tibetan plateau surface. Dramatic biome shifts from the LGM to the Holocene were observed in the forest-grassland ecotone and transitional zones between temperate and subtropical climates, between subtropical and tropical regions, and in the mountainous margins of the eastern Tibetan Plateau. Evidence showed more human disturbances during the late Holocen...

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Holocene vegetation and climate of the Alashan Plateau, NW China, reconstructed from pollen data

Cited by 216 publications

References 37 publications

Hydrological and Climatic Changes in Deserts of China since the Late Pleistocene

Hydrological and Climatic Changes in Deserts of China since the Late Pleistocene

Palaeo-moisture evolution in monsoonal Central Asia during the last 50,000 years

Biome distribution over the last 22,000yr in China

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