Altitudinal changes of surface pollen and vegetation on the north slope of the Middle Tianshan Mountains,China

To provide information on vegetation patterns and altitudinal distributions of pollen assemblage in surface soil layers,their complicated relationships in a dryland mountain-basin system in northwestern China and a realistic basis for paleovegetational reconstruction,we investigated 86 vegetation quadrats and analyzed 80 soil samples from the surface soil layers along an altitudinal transect on the north slope of the Middle Tianshan Mountains from alpine cushion vegetation at 3,510 m near glacier to desert vegetation at 460 m in the Gurbantunggut Desert.According to surface pollen assemblages and the results of the detrended correspondence analysis,the transect can be divided into six major altitudinal pollen zones as alpine cushion vegetation,alpine and subalpine meadows,montane Picea forest,forest-steppe ecotone,Artemisia desert and typical desert,which basically reflect the characteristics of the mountainous vegetation patterns on the north slope of the Middle Tianshan Mountains.However,Picea pollen also exists outside the spruce forest,Chenopodiaceae and Artemisia pollen appeared above the elevation of 1,300 m,indicating that most of them might be introduced from lower elevations by upslope winds.Airborne pollen researches from three regions at different elevations further suggest that a high-frequency northwest anabatic wind has a remarkable influence on the transportation and dispersion of surface pollen in the area.

348-YEAR PRECIPITATION RECONSTRUCTION FROM TREE-RINGS FOR THE NORTH SLOPE OF THE MIDDLE TIANSHAN MOUNTAINS

Correlation census shows that the correlation between the tree-ring chronologies in the Urumqi River Basin and precipitation during July in the last year to February in the concurrent year is significant,and the best single correlation coefficient is 0.74,with significance level of 0.0001. Using two residual chronologies collected from west Baiyanggou and Boerqingou,precipitation for 348 years can be reconstructed in the North Slope of middle Tianshan Mountains,its explained variance is 62%.According to much verification from independent precipitation data,historical climate records,glacier and other data.it shows that the reconstructed precipitation series of 348 years is reliable.Analysis of precipitation features indicates that there were three wet periods occurring during 1671(?)—1692,1716—1794 and 1825—1866 and three dry periods during 1693 —1715,1795—1824 and 1867—1969.Two wet periods,during 1716—1794 and 1825—1866, correspond to the times of the second and the third glacial terminal moraine formation,which is in front of No.1 glacier in Urumqi River source.According to computation,corresponding annual precipitation amounts are 59mm and 30mm more than now.The reconstructed precipitation series has a significant drying trend from 1716 to 1969.and has better representativeness to the precipitation of Urumqi and Changji Prefecture on the North Slope of Tianshan Mountains.