Palaeovegetation of China: a pollen data-based synthesis for the mid-Holocene and last glacial maximum

• Published in: Journal of Biogeography
• Main Authors: Yu, G, Chen, X, Ni, J, Cheddadi, R, Guiot, Joel, Han, H, Harrison, Sp, Huang, C, Ke, M, Kong, Z, Li, S, Li, W, Liew, P, Liu, G, Liu, J, Liu, Q, Liu, Kb, Prentice, Ic, Qui, W, Ren, G, Song, C, Sugita, S, Sun, X, Tang, L, Vancampo, E, Xia, Y, Xu, Q, Yan, S, Yang, X, Zhao, J, Zheng, Z
• Other Authors: Departamento de Qumica-Fsica, UPV-EHU, University of the Basque Country/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea (UPV/EHU), Department of Physics, Shanghai University, Institut Méditerranéen d'Ecologie et de Paléoécologie (IMEP), Université Paul Cézanne - Aix-Marseille 3-Université de Provence - Aix-Marseille 1-Avignon Université (AU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Centre européen de recherche et d'enseignement des géosciences de l'environnement (CEREGE), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-Aix Marseille Université (AMU)-Collège de France (CdF (institution))-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2000
• Subjects: [SDE.MCG]Environmental Sciences/Global Changes; taiga
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-01457622; https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2699.2000.00431.x

International audience Pollen data from China for 6000 and 18,000 C-14 yr BP Were compiled and used to reconstruct palaeovegetation patterns, using complete taxon lists where possible and a biomization procedure that entailed the assignment of 645 pollen taxa to plant functional types. A set of 658 modern pollen samples spanning all biomes and regions provided a comprehensive test for this procedure and showed convincing agreement between reconstructed biomes and present natural vegetation types, both geographically and in terms of the elevation gradients in mountain regions of north-eastern and south-western China. The 6000 C-14 yr BP map confirms earlier studies in showing that the forest biomes in eastern China were systematically shifted northwards and extended westwards during the mid-Holocene. Tropical rain forest occurred on mainland China at sites characterized today by either tropical seasonal or broadleaved evergreen/warm mixed forest. Broadleaved evergreen/warm mixed forest occurred further north than today, and at higher elevation sites within the modern latitudinal range of this biome. The northern limit of temperate deciduous forest was shifted c. 800 km north relative to today. The 18,000 C-14 yr BP map shows that steppe and even desert vegetation extended to the modem coast of eastern China at the last glacial maximum, replacing today's temperate deciduous forest. Tropical forests were excluded from China and broadleaved evergreen/warm mixed forest had retreated to tropical latitudes, while taiga extended southwards to c. 43 degreesN.