Vegetation of Eurasia from the last glacial maximum to present: Key biogeographic patterns

• Published in: Quaternary Science Reviews
• Main Authors: Binney, H., Edwards, M., Macias-Fauria, M., Lozhkin, A., Anderson, P., Kaplan, J. O., Andreev, A., Bezrukova, E., Blyakharchuk, T., Jankovská, V. (Vlasta), Khazina, E., Krivonogov, S., Kremenetski, K., Nield, J., Novenko, E., Ryabogina, N., Solovieva, N., Willis, K., Zernitskaya, V.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: Eurasia; vegetation; Late Quaternary; Tundra
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2016.11.022; http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0277631

Continental-scale estimates of vegetation cover, including land surface propertzies and biogeographic trends, reflect the response of plant species to climate changes over the past millennia. These estimates can help assess the effectiveness of simulations of climate change using forward and inverse modelling approaches. With the advent of trasient and contiguous time-slice palaeoclimate simulations, vegetation datasets with similar temporal qualities are desirable. We collated fossil pollen records for the period 21,000-0 cal yr BP (kyr cal BP, calibrated ages) for Europe and Asia north of 40°N, using extant datasbases and new data, we filtered records for adequate dating and sorted the nomenclature to conform to a consistent yet extensive taxon list. Form this database we extracted pollen spectra representing 1000-year time-slices from 21 kyr cal BP to present and used the biomization approach to define the most likely vegetation biome represented. Biomes were mapped for the 22 time slices, and key plant functional types (PFTs, the constituents of the biomes) were tracked thoungh time. An error matrix and index of topographic complexity clearly showed that the accuracy of pollen-based biome assignments (when compareted with modern vegetation) was negatively correlated with topographic complexity, but modern vegetation was nevertheless effectively mapped by the pollen, despite moderate levels of misclassification for most biomes. The pattern at 21 ka is of herb-dominated biomes across the whole region. From the onset of deglaciation (17-18 kyr cal BP), some sites in Europe record forest biomes, particularly the south, and the propostion of forest biomes gradually increases with time through 14 kyr cal BP. During the same period, forest biomes and steppe or tundra biomes are intermixed across the central Asian mountains, and forest biomes occur in coastal Pacific areas.