Pollen-inferred vegetation and environmental changes in the central Tibetan Plateau since 8200 yr BP

Tang, Ling; Shen, Caiming; Li, Chun Hai; Peng, Jinlong; Liu, Hui; Liu, Kam Biu; Morrill, C.; Overpeck, Jonathan T.; Coel, Julia E.; Yang, Bao

doi:10.1007/s11430-009-0080-5

Cited by 39 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Vegetation changes in the region during the Holocene are attracting increasing attention due to the sensitivity of alpine vegetation to climate change Shen et al, 2008) and human activity (Miehe et al, 2006). Among numerous paleoenvironmental proxies, lacustrine pollen records with continuous sedimentation and high resolution have become one of the major archives for paleovegetation and paleoclimate reconstructions in the region (Sun et al, 1993;Shen, 2003;Herzschuh et al, 2006;Tang et al, 2009;Li et al, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vegetation successions in response to Holocene climate changes in the central Tibetan Plateau

Lü

Shen

et al. 2016

Journal of Arid Environments

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a b s t r a c tAlpine vegetation in the central Tibetan Plateau is vulnerable to climate change. Nine lacustrine pollen records with well-constrained chronologies and high-resolution data were reviewed to document regional and local patterns of alpine vegetation succession in this region, and to understand the climatic driving forces for these changes. According to the relationship between modern pollen distribution and climate condition in the central Tibetan Plateau, Cyperaceae is a moisture-favored and cold-resistant component in both the vegetation and pollen assemblages in the region, while Artemisia is a droughttolerant and temperate component. Within an eastewest transect across contemporary alpine steppe zone and alpine meadow zone of the central Tibetan Plateau, Kobresia (Cyperaceae)-dominated alpine meadow expanded westwards to invade the alpine steppe (dominated by Artemisia and Poaceae), and to replace the Artemisia-rich temperate steppe on a regional scale during the mid-Holocene, probably driven by the enhanced precipitation. Vegetation within a southenorth transect, covered by alpine steppe and temperate steppe, underwent a turnover in steppe composition from a predominance of Artemisia during the first half of the Holocene to a predominance of Cyperaceae in the latter half on a regional scale, caused by a decline in the temperature. Furthermore, altitudinal vegetation belts in the central Tibetan Plateau shifted downwards in response to cooling climate since the early Holocene. Therefore, monsoonal precipitation and insolation-driven temperature changes may be the key climate driving forces for the Holocene vegetation successions in the central Tibetan Plateau.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vegetation successions in response to Holocene climate changes in the central Tibetan Plateau

Lü

Shen

et al. 2016

Journal of Arid Environments

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“…Gasse et al, 1991;Shen et al, 2008;Tang et al, 2009;Herzschuh et al, 2010a and have subsequently been interpreted in terms of climatic variations through the application of pollen-climate calibration functions Herzschuh et al, 2010b;Lu et al, 2011). However, the relationship between vegetation and climate is not straightforward because of the non-linear response of vegetation to various climate parameters and related feedback mechanisms.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Temporally changing drivers for late-Holocene vegetation changes on the northern Tibetan Plateau

Wang

Liu

Herzschuh

et al. 2012

Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology

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a b s t r a c t a r t i c l e i n f oFossil pollen records have been widely used as indicators of past changes in vegetation and variations in climate. The driving mechanisms behind these vegetation changes have, however, remained unclear. In order to evaluate vegetation changes that have occurred in the northern part of the Tibetan Plateau and the possible drivers behind these changes, we have applied a moving-window Redundancy Analysis (RDA) to high resolution (10-15 years) pollen and sedimentary data from Lake Kusai covering the last 3770 years. Our analyses reveal frequent fluctuations in the relative abundances of alpine steppe and alpine desert components. The sedimentary proxies (including total organic carbon content, total inorganic carbon content, and "end-member" indices from grain-size analyses) that explain statistically some of the changes in the pollen assemblage vary significantly with time, most probably reflecting multiple underlying driving processes. Climate appears to have had an important influence on vegetation changes when conditions were relatively wet and stable. However, a gradual decrease in vegetation cover was identified after 1500 cal a BP, after which the vegetation appears to have been affected more by extreme events such as dust-storms or fluvial erosion than by general climatic trends. Furthermore, pollen spectra over the last 600 years are shown by Procrustes analysis to be statistically different from those recovered from older samples, which we attribute to increased human impact that resulted in unprecedented changes to the vegetation composition. Overall, changes in vegetation and climate on the northern part of the Tibetan Plateau appear to have roughly followed the evolution of the Asian Summer Monsoon. After taking into account the highly significant millennial (1512 years) periodicity revealed by time-series analysis, the regional vegetation and climate changes also show variations that appear to match variations in the mid-latitude westerlies.

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“…In recent years, paleovegetation changes in the TP have attracted more and more attentions for the vulnerabilities of alpine vegetation to the environmental changes [2][3][4][5][6][7] and human activities [8,9]. Among numerous proxies, fossil pollen assemblage have become one of the major archives for the reconstructions of paleovegetation and paleoclimate in the TP [3][4][5][6][7][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]. Based on the modern pollen investigations in the TP, the sensitive responses of vegetation to the climate changes have been reconstructed by the fossil pollen records with successive sedimentation and high resolution [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19].…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Among numerous proxies, fossil pollen assemblage have become one of the major archives for the reconstructions of paleovegetation and paleoclimate in the TP [3][4][5][6][7][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]. Based on the modern pollen investigations in the TP, the sensitive responses of vegetation to the climate changes have been reconstructed by the fossil pollen records with successive sedimentation and high resolution [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]. Most of these studies were focused on the vegetation changes of the horizontal vegetation zones in the northeastern [13][14][15]19], central-southeastern [3][4][5]10,16] and western TP [11].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Based on the modern pollen investigations in the TP, the sensitive responses of vegetation to the climate changes have been reconstructed by the fossil pollen records with successive sedimentation and high resolution [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]. Most of these studies were focused on the vegetation changes of the horizontal vegetation zones in the northeastern [13][14][15]19], central-southeastern [3][4][5]10,16] and western TP [11]. Accordingly, previous modern pollen investigations have been limited to explore the relationships between surface pollen spectra, vegetation and climate conditions in the eastern regions [19,20], the western plateau [21], and the whole surface of the TP on a large scale [8,12,17,22].…”

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confidence: 99%

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Modern pollen-vegetation relationship based on discriminant analysis across an altitudinal transect on Gongga Mountain, eastern Tibetan Plateau

Quan

Tong

2012

Chin. Sci. Bull.

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Quantitative relationship between modern pollen assemblage and altitudinal vegetation belt is crucial for the reconstruction of paleovegetation in the mountain regions. Modern pollen analysis on 70 topsoil samples was conducted across an altitudinal transect (1100-4500 m) on the eastern slope of Gongga Mountain in the eastern Tibetan Plateau with an elevation interval of 50 m. Distributions of major pollen types along the transect indicated a weak correlation between Pinus pollen and the elevation. Distributions of Picea and Abies pollen (percentage sum of 2%-8%) could fairly indicate the elevation range of 2700-3700 m, as well as the subalpine dark coniferous forest and the timberline in the region. High percentage intervals of alpine types of Ericaceae, Cupressaceae and Cyperaceae were correlated to the high-elevation regions (3700-4500 m) dominated by alpine shrub meadow and alpine meadow. Seven altitudinal vegetation belts on the eastern slope of Gongga Mountain were well defined by discriminant analysis conducted on the modern pollen assemblages, as reflected by high values of probability of modern analog. Most of the modern pollen assemblages (88.5%) were typical for the vegetation types at their sampling locations. Thus, the relationship between the modern pollen assemblages and vegetation across the altitudinal transect based on discriminant analysis can be applied to the quantitative reconstruction of paleovegetation changes in the mountain regions of the eastern Tibetan Plateau. modern pollen assemblage, altitudinal vegetation belt, discriminant analysis, Gongga Mountain, Tibetan Plateau Citation:Li Q, Ge Q S, Tong G B. Modern pollen-vegetation relationship based on discriminant analysis across an altitudinal transect on Gongga Mountain, eastern Tibetan Plateau.

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Pollen-inferred vegetation and environmental changes in the central Tibetan Plateau since 8200 yr BP

Cited by 39 publications

References 25 publications

Vegetation successions in response to Holocene climate changes in the central Tibetan Plateau

Vegetation successions in response to Holocene climate changes in the central Tibetan Plateau

Temporally changing drivers for late-Holocene vegetation changes on the northern Tibetan Plateau

Modern pollen-vegetation relationship based on discriminant analysis across an altitudinal transect on Gongga Mountain, eastern Tibetan Plateau

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