Postglacial history of the Steppe Altai: Climate, fire and plant diversity

Rudaya, Natalia; Krivonogov, Sergey K.; Słowiński, Michał; Cao, Xianyong; Zhilich, Snezhana

doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2020.106616

Cited by 52 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 77 publications

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“…In figures, soil refers to the first 3-5 cm of the ground in dry ecosystems, while moss is a mix between soil, litter and a bryophyte (or Cyperaceae) layer in wetter environments. Moss acts as a pollen trap recording a 3-to 5-year mean pollen signal (Räsänen et al, 2004). In drier areas, the soil surface samples have the same function, in spite of a lower pollen conservation and over-representation of some taxa (Lebreton et al, 2010).…”

Section: Coring Sampling Area and Sample Typesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate reconstructions based on GDGT and pollen surface datasets from Mongolia and Baikal area: calibrations and applicability to extremely cold–dry environments over the Late Holocene

et al. 2021

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Abstract. Our understanding of climate and vegetation changes throughout the Holocene is hampered by representativeness in sedimentary archives. Potential biases such as production and preservation of the markers are identified by comparing these proxies with modern environments. It is important to conduct multi-proxy studies and robust calibrations on each terrestrial biome. These calibrations use large databases dominated by forest samples. Therefore, including data from steppe and desert–steppe sites becomes necessary to better calibrate arid environments. The Mongolian Plateau, ranging from the Baikal area to the Gobi desert, is especially characterized by low annual precipitation and continental annual air temperature. The characterization of the climate system of this area is crucial for the understanding of Holocene monsoon oscillations. This study focuses on the calibration of proxy–climate relationships for pollen and glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (GDGTs) by comparing large Eurasian calibrations with a set of 49 new surface samples (moss polster, soil and mud from temporary dry ponds). These calibrations are then cross-validated by an independent dataset of top-core samples and applied to four Late Holocene paleosequences (two brGDGT and two pollen records) surrounding the Mongolian Plateau: in the Altai mountains, the Baikal area and the Qaidam basin, to test the accuracy of local and global calibrations. We show that (1) preserved pollen assemblages are clearly imprinted on the extremities of the ecosystem range but mitigated and unclear on the ecotones; (2) for both proxies, inferred relationships depend on the geographical range covered by the calibration database as well as on the nature of samples; (3) even if local calibrations suffer from reduced amplitude of climatic parameters due to local homogeneity, they better reflect actual climate than the global ones by reducing the limits for saturation impact; (4) a bias in climatic reconstructions is induced by the over-parameterization of the models by the addition of artificial correlation; and (5) paleoclimate values reconstructed here are consistent with Mongolia–China Late Holocene climate trends and validate the application of local calibrations for both pollen and GDGTs (closest fit to actual values and realistic paleoclimate amplitude). We encourage the application of this surface calibration method to reconstruct paleoclimate and especially consolidate our understanding of the Holocene climate and environment variations in arid central Asia.

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Section: Coring Sampling Area and Sample Typesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate reconstructions based on GDGT and pollen surface datasets from Mongolia and Baikal area: calibrations and applicability to extremely cold–dry environments over the Late Holocene

et al. 2021

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“…In order to reconstruct the palynological diversity history over the Holocene in Qingling Mountains region from different aspects, Hill's indices (Hill, 1973) and rarefaction analysis (Hurlbert, 1971) are used to estimate the diversity richness including palynological richness, Shannon diversity, and Simpson diversity. Palynological richness is the simple count of the number of taxa which represents the total number of taxa in a community to describe the vegetation community; the number of common taxa is known as the Shannon diversity index; and the number of dominant taxa is a measure of the Simpson diversity (Rudaya et al, 2020;Kulkarni et al, 2021). We also calculated evenness index to reflect the community structure and to assess palynological diversity at the regional scale and variations in vegetation composition (Pielou, 1966).…”

Section: Pollen-based Plant Diversitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Pollen is an important indicator for the reconstruction of past plant diversity. There have been many studies on plant diversity based on the palynological diversity (Xiao et al, 2008;Liang et al, 2019;Rudaya et al, 2020;Mottl et al, 2021). Even though there are several uncertainties involved in reconstructing plant diversity from fossil pollen records.…”

Section: Relationship Between Palynological Diversity and Holocene Climate Change In The Qinling Mountainsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There is a long history of human impacts on the composition and structure of vegetation, associated with the development of agriculture and the use of fire (Ruddiman, 2003;Rudaya et al, 2020;Kulkarni et al, 2021). In southern China significant agricultural activity began ∼6000 years ago (Cheng et al, 2018), while the large-scale alteration of the vegetation composition and ecosystems has occurred during the past few millennia (Lewis and Maslin, 2015;McMichael, 2021).…”

Section: Relationship Between Palynological Diversity and Holocene Climate Change In The Qinling Mountainsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Pollen analysis has been widely used to study the history of vegetation and plant diversity on different timescales (Jackson and Blois, 2015;Birks et al, 2016a,b;Felde et al, 2020), and fossil pollen records can provide important information about the response of vegetation to past changes in climate and land use (Willis et al, 2004(Willis et al, , 2010Rudaya et al, 2020). The Qinling Mountain range is the natural geographic and climatic boundary between North and South China.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Vegetation Response to Holocene Climate Change in the Qinling Mountains in the Temperate–Subtropical Transition Zone of Central–East China

et al. 2021

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Global warming is having a profound influence on vegetation and biodiversity patterns, especially in alpine areas and high latitudes. The Qinling Mountain range is located in the transition zone between the temperate and subtropical ecosystems of central–east China and thus the vegetation of the area is diverse. Understanding the long-term interactions between plant diversity and climate change can potentially provide a reference for future landscape management and biodiversity conservation strategies in the Qinling Mountains region. Here, we use a pollen record from the Holocene sediments of Daye Lake, on Mount Taibai in the Qingling Mountains, to study regional vegetation changes based on biomes reconstruction and diversity analysis. Temperature and precipitation records from sites close to Daye Lake are used to provide environmental background to help determine the vegetation response to climate change. The results indicate that climate change was the main factor influencing vegetation and palynological diversity in the Qinling Mountains during the Holocene. The cold and dry climate at the beginning of the early Holocene (11,700–10,700 cal yr BP) resulted in a low abundance and uneven distribution of regional vegetation types, with the dominance of coniferous forest. During the early Holocene (10,700–7,000 cal yr BP), temperate deciduous broadleaf forest expanded, palynological diversity and evenness increased, indicating that the warm and humid climate promoted vegetation growth. In the middle Holocene (7,000–3,000 cal yr BP), the climate became slightly drier but a relatively warm environment supported the continued increase in palynological diversity. After ∼3,000 cal yr BP, palynological diversity and the evenness index commenced a decreasing trend, in agreement with the decreased temperature and precipitation in the Qinling Mountains. It’s noteworthy that human activity at this time had a potential influence on the vegetation. During the past few centuries, however, palynological diversity has increased along with the global temperature, and therefore it is possible that in the short-term ongoing climatic warming will promote vegetation development and palynological diversity in the area without human interference.

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Forest fires in southwest Western Siberia: the impact of climate and economic transitions over 9000 years

Ryabogina,

Nesterova,

Utaygulova

et al. 2024

J Quaternary Science

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Here we compare the long‐term dynamics of fires in the southern taiga of Western Siberia with changes in the environment and ancient economies. Utilizing charcoal particles extracted from peat sediments, we assess charcoal accumulation rates to identify the neighborhood level of fires. Comparison of changes in vegetation, climate and land‐use history with fire dynamics reveals that wildfires were climate‐dependent but inconsequential during the first half of the Holocene (9.0–4.1k cal a bp) in the hunter‐gatherer period. Critical changes and a notable increase in fires were observed in the Late Holocene when pyrogenic events correlate poorly with changes in vegetation cover and climate. Nevertheless, after 4.1k cal a bp, a direct relationship between fire frequency and economic features emerged, primarily linked to the introduction of animal husbandry and metallurgy, along with an increase in the number of settlements. Subsequently, fire activity increased, remaining higher even during periods of cooling and increased humidity, and this appears to have been related more closely to the economic strategies and periods of depopulation. Thus, even in Siberia, where agriculture had not been practised until the last few centuries, the transition to a productive economy in the Bronze Age brought decisive changes in the dynamics of forest fires.

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Postglacial history of the Steppe Altai: Climate, fire and plant diversity

Cited by 52 publications

References 77 publications

Climate reconstructions based on GDGT and pollen surface datasets from Mongolia and Baikal area: calibrations and applicability to extremely cold–dry environments over the Late Holocene

Climate reconstructions based on GDGT and pollen surface datasets from Mongolia and Baikal area: calibrations and applicability to extremely cold–dry environments over the Late Holocene

Vegetation Response to Holocene Climate Change in the Qinling Mountains in the Temperate–Subtropical Transition Zone of Central–East China

Forest fires in southwest Western Siberia: the impact of climate and economic transitions over 9000 years

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