Relationship between modern pollen assemblages and vegetation in the Bashang typical steppe region of North China

Abstract

Accurate knowledge of the relationship between modern vegetation and the corresponding surface pollen assemblages is the key to the quantitative reconstruction of paleovegetation and paleoclimate. The pollen assemblages of steppe regions are affected by many factors and distinguishing the pollen assemblages of different plant community types, especially Artemisia and Poaceae communities is a major difficulty in modern pollen studies in these regions. In this study we used RDA analysis to analyze modern vegetation and pollen percentage data from 119 sampling sites in different plant communities in the Bashang region of North China, which has a typical steppe vegetation. We used the results to quantitatively determine the distinguishing features of various plant community types and the relationship between the percentages of the dominant pollen types and the corresponding vegetation cover. The major results are as follows: 1) there is a clear distinction between Artemisia and Poaceae communities; in the Artemisia community, Artemisia pollen percentages are typically > 50%, and Poaceae pollen percentages are typically 3%, and Artemisia pollen percentages are typically 10%.

Keywords

• Pollen-vegetation relationships
• Typical steppe
• RDA analysis
• Plant community types
• Pollen assemblages