Climate Reconstruction based on Pollen Analysis in Inner Mongolia, North China from 51.9 to 30.6 kaBP

The palynomorph assemblage of lake sediments younger than 51.9 kaBP from Wulagai Gobi in Inner Mongolia was analyzed to reconstruct the vegetation and climate. From 51.9 to 30.6 kaBP, the vegetation was arid to semi-arid grassland with only slight changes. According to the palynomorphs, trees and shrubs were very rare. The large number and diversity of algae indicate the presence of a lake. Quantitative climatic conditions were reconstructed using the Best Analogues Method. The results indicate that the annual mean temperature was higher than that at present. The combination of temperature and annual precipitation suggests a change in the climate from cool dry to warm dry and then cool humid. Our results show that the annual precipitation values were mostly higher than that at present but were lower than 400 mm. It infers that the study area was already within the arid to semi-arid regions but with a stronger influence of the summer monsoon during 51.9 to 30.6 kaBP than at present. With slight differences mainly in time scale, the changing trend of the annual temperature curve is consistent with the other climatic records from Antarctica, Greenland, Hulu Cave （East China）, and the Tibetan Plateau during the last glacial period. From 30.6 kaBP to present, very few palynomorphs were detected in the samples. Hence, no information about the vegetation and climate could be extracted. Combined with other studies during Late Pleistocene, we presume that the reason for the lack of pollen during this period was caused by an abrupt temperature fall after 30.6 kaBP or that the lacustrine conditions were unsuitable for pollen deposition. It was probably incurred by the oxidation on land prior to deposition. But for those samples only with algae, it might be caused by the fact that algae could finish their life history in a very short time in a seasonal lake.

Pollen Assemblage Features of Modern Water Samples from the Shiyang River Drainage, Arid Region of China

Pollen analysis of 30 modem water samples from the Shivang River, an internal river system located between the Tengger and Badain Jaran deserts, Northwest China was carried out to examine the river's capacity to carry pollen and spores, and to assess the contribution of the water-borne pollen to pollen assemblages in lake sediments at the end of the river system. Results indicate the pollen assemblages in water samples consist of both local and upland pollen. Percentages of upland pollen reach 30% - 60%, and pollen assemblages in water samples do not indicate the nature of local vegetation at the sampling sites. Fluvial currents have the capacity to transport large quantities of pollen long distances, and the contribution of this fluvial transported pollen is relatively high, For example, percentages of Picea Dietr. pollen in water samples at sampling sites 130 km and 145 km away from Picea forests reach 16.5% and 7.7%, respectively. Fluvial pollen transport occurs primarily during flood periods, and pollen concentrations from the flood samples are 17.1 - 12.5 times those from normal fluvial flow. Reservoirs affect pollen transportation since pollen is deposited at reservoir inlets and pollen concentrations are much reduced at reservoir outlets. Human activity can thus change natural features of pollen transportation and deposition. The main factors influencing pollen concentrations and assemblages are sampling time, sampling location, and rainfall intensity.

Pollen and Phytolith Analyses of Ancient Paddy Fields at Chuodun Site, the Yangtze River Delta

A number of paddy fields pertaining to the Majiabang Cultures (5500-3800 years BC) were discovered during the archaeological excavations that were carried out since 1998 at the Chuodun site in the Yangtze River Delta. The pollen and phytolith analyses of two soil profiles from the northeastern part of this site were carried out to trace the agricultural practices of the Neolithic period. The phytolith results showed that rice domestication in the Yangtze River Delta could be traced back to as early as the Majiabang Culture. The pollen assemblage also revealed low levels of aquatic species, similar to that in modern paddy fields. This finding suggested that humans might have removed weeds for rice cultivation during the Neolithic period. Thus, pollen analysis in association with phytolith analysis was a promising method for identifying ancient paddy fields.

Were Herod the Great’s Palace Gardens Unique?

Herod the Great built palaces and complexes with innovative excellence.This article explores his success in creating unique and luxurious gardens in desert areas.It does this by discussing the interaction between Herodian architecture already excavated by archaeologists and the newer science of garden archaeology.The investigation gives a realistic knowledge,through laboratory analysis of the plants grown in Herod’s gardens and how inventive he was.

Vegetation Changes and Human Influences on Qian’an Basin Since the Middle Holocene

Vegetation changes and human influences on natural environments since 5 000 a BP were discussed based on the pollen data supported by radiocarbon dating from Cangumiao and Yujiawa profiles in Qian'an Basin, the southern area of Yanshan Mountain. The research indicates that (1) from 4 600 to 3 100 a BP, deciduous broad_leaved forests dominated by Quercus grew in the Basin, (2) after 3 100 a BP, broad_leaved species reduced and Pinus increased, in response to the cooling climate, (3) since 1 600 a BP, forests had been destroyed seriously due to the increase of agricultural activities, and (4) pollen analysis showed that Castanea trees had been cultivated for 1 600 years, and Oryza had been planted for 700 years in Qian'an Basin.

Impact of climate change on dynamic of plant communities, lakes and swamps in Beijing area during Holocene period

From 400-60 cm 26 samples were obtained in an 820 cm profile at Dongganchi of Fangshan in Beijing. They provided a continuous record of vegetation and environmental changes over ca .7000 aB.P., as inferred from Spore-pollen. loss-on-ignition (LOI), and charcoal analysis,impacts of natural fire and human activities on plant communities and lakes and swamps were considered. 1) From 7000-5960 aB.P, the forest development was limited, probably in response to climate Warming. Aquatic and marsh plants began to increase, bat the lakes and swamps in some areas were limited. 2) About 5960-3390 aB.p, presumably in responded to climate warming which was warmer than that at present Aquatic plants began to become abundant,reflected the widespread development of the lakes and swamps, the climate was wet with annual precipitation higher than that at present 3) About 3390-1000 aB.P, human activities have kept to be the dominating factor in the evolution of vegetation and climatic change. Temperature decreased, and the annual precipitation rapidly reduced in Baijing area. the lakes and swamps gradually shrank back, some of them even disappeared. 4) After 1000 aB.P, there was a severe fluntuction, and early during this time, it was comparatively warm and humid, but became cool and dry later. In the meantime. human activities were intensified. agricultural activity was flourished. and large area of water field was cultivated

Reconstruction of the Vegetation and Environment during Different Climatic and Sociotechnical Conditions of the Last 3000 Years in Southwestern Hungary

Sedimentary basins such as Lake Baláta in Southwestern Hungary provide information about the development of lake-bog systems, the climate change through time and the environment of the surrounding area. The present study provides combined palynological, anthracological and macrobotanical data regarding climatic, vegetation and hydrological changes of a protected area for the last 3000 years. Lake Baláta is a sedimentary basin developed in a wind-blown yardang system in Southwestern Hungary. Due to its deeper location and the higher groundwater-level, the boggy lake functioned as a sediment catch. Geological drilling with an auger head drill provided an undisturbed sediment core. During the laboratory analysis different methods, such as sedimentological, geochemical, macrofossil, pollen and charcoal analysis were applied. The different stages and the evolution of the lake-bog system and the vegetation around the lake could be reconstructed and human impact was detected for the last 3000 years. Human impact and the transformation of vegetation was detected from the Early Iron Age (900/800 BC). Human impact reached its maximum during the 10th and 12th centuries when extent plant cultivation and grazing field zones were created. Climate change, increasing precipitation and consequently forest regeneration started in the 13th and 14th centuries. Parallel to this human impact decreased in the study area that indicates the reduction of the population and agrarian activity. Later at the beginning of the 15th century human impact increased again and remained significant until to the 16th century.

Vegetation dynamics and climate variability over the past 2000 years inferred from Son Kul marsh in the western Tianshan Mountains

A pollen study was conducted on an alpine marsh sediment in the Son Kul Basin and was allowed to reconstruct changes in vegetation dynamics and climatic information in the western Tianshan Mountains during the past 2000 years.Pollen diagram reveals that regional vegetation is dominated by alpine meadow in the past 2000 years,being similar with modern vegetation components in the basin.The Artemisia/Chenopodiaceae-indicated moisture exhibits a warm-dry Roman Warm Period(RWP,~0-~500 AD),a cold-dry Dark Ages Cold Period(DACP,~500-~800 AD),a warm-wet Medieval Warm Period(MWP,~800-~1350 AD),a cold-dry Little Ice Age(LIA,~1350-~1850 AD)and a warm-dry Current Warm Period(CWP,since~1850 AD).Our pollen-based moisture reconstructions are supported by other nearby moisture records.Combined with other pollen data in the western Tianshan Mountains,we found that the vegetation was relatively stable before~1650-~1750 AD and the anthropogenic activities obviously intensified afterwards(especially at the middle-elevation sites).Further work involving more and higher-resolution palaeovegetation records would contribute to fully understand the information on the complex links between environmental,climatic and anthropogenic changes in the western Tianshan Mountains.

About A New Complex Method of Climates Reconstruction and Forecasting of Climate Changes in the Future

This paper deals with a new integrated method of reconstruction and forecasting of climatic changes in future. The method is based on proxy data pollen-spore analysis method, 14C analysis method, nowadays meteorological data, and data about of solar activity expressed in numbers of W （Wolf）. Here we present the results of investigation of sediments of the 2nd Fomich River terrace, Taymyr Peninsula, Russia. The formation of the peat bog started 10500 ± 140 years BP and continued during the entire Holocene. The pollen analysis of the sediment samples of the 2nd Fomich River terrace and the analysis of surface samples from a larch forest, typical of this region, reveals two phytochrones： both climatically preconditioned--tundra phytochrone （I1-4） and forest phytochrone （Ⅱ1-4）. The techniques of reconstruction and forecasting of basic elements of climate are presented and discussed in details.

A^200 ka pollen record from Okinawa Trough:Paleoenvironment reconstruction of glacial-interglacial cycles

Pollen analysis was carried out on the Core MD982194 of 29.78 m retrieved from the Middle Okinawa Trough which was dated as old as -200 ka BP. The results revealed that pollen assemblages mainly presented an alternation of coniferous and herb pollen. The coniferous saccate pollen, principally Pinus and Tsuga, predominated in most parts of the core, especially highlighted in the interstadial stages including MIS 1,3, 5 and MIS7, whereas the herb pollen significantly increased in the gla- cial periods. Thus the pollen flora and their percentages showed the sensitive changes under the influence of ice volume during the glacial and interglacial periods. Our record from this core has first documented that the percentage of Cyperaceae was ex- tremely high in the glacial stages with a notable increase in Artemisia, Gramineae, Asteraceae, Cbenopodiaceae, and freshwa- ter algae, which can be used as a proxy for sea-level change at the study site because of their close negative correlation of the orbital-scale changes in sea level. The distance between the continental coastline and the Okinawa Trough has deeply short- ened due to the sea-level drop in the LGM. As a result, the sediment materials from Yangtze River were extensively deposited on the flat, exposed continental shelf owing to the rapid decline of river flow speed, leading to that pollen grains from Okinawa Trough are derived mainly from the flat coastal vegetation of exposed continental shelf at glacial stages. Changes of pollen as- semblage were consistent with the variation of temperature and humidity, which showed that the percentage of arboreal pollen was highly augmented at MIS 7, 5 and MIS 1, corresponding to the strengthening of the East Asian summer monsoon and in- creasing of rainfall. Moreover, the peak of Pinus percentage in MIS 5.3, 5.1 and MIS 3.3 may be closely linked by orbital and sub-orbital cycles of solar radiation and monsoonal variability. The present study of core MD981294 implied lower tempera- ture and precipitation during the lowest sea-level stage （LGM）, and more visibly testified that the vegetation of the flat plain on the exposed continental shelf was dominated by intrazonal communities such as halophyte grasslands and freshwater wetlands instead of zonal steppe or semi-arid desert. All above evidence demonstrated that the fundamental changes of pollen assem- blage and their origins in Okinawa Trough since -200 ka BP were affected by combine factors including the coastline position and climate fluctuation. Moreover, the substantial shortening of distance between shoreline and the Okinawa Trough driven by orbital insolation cycles was clearly indicated by the pollen spectra, whereas the source-area climate signal of the pollen record was largely weakened.

Mating patterns and pollen dispersal in a Japanese larch(Larix kaempferi) clonal seed orchard： a case study

Pollination dynamics highly determines the genetic quality of seed orchard crops. However, there is less research about the effect of mating patterns on seed productivity of orchard crops. So far, clonal seed orchards have been producing genetically improved seedlings used for most Japanese larch(Larix kaempferi(Lamb.) Carr.) plantations in China. In the present study, a total of 17 highly variable simple sequence repeat(SSR) markers were used for genotyping a progeny trial population consisting of 647 open-pollinated progenies germinated from seeds which were collected from 63 maternal clones with 140 potential paternal clones in a Japanese larch clonal seed orchard in China. Paternity analysis was used in the present case study in order to evaluate the level of paternal gametic contribution, estimate pollen contamination and selfing rates, and investigate pollination patterns,pollen dispersal patterns and the impact of mating patterns on seed productivity of orchard crops. We observed 93.7% of the success rate of the parental assignment, unequal paternal gametic contribution(0–12.4%) with 6.3% of the progenies derived from pollen contamination or unsampled pollen donors, and absence of evidence for selfing. We also found that pollination rate highly depended on the distance between pollen donors and maternal parents, the majority of the identified crossing(65.7%)occurred between clones within a 150-m radius, and large variations in growth performance existed among the paternal halfsiblings. Progeny growth performance(diameter at breast(DBH) and height(HGT)) was measured at Age-20 in order to investigate the impact of mating patterns on timber production of orchard crops. As either the paternal or maternal, two clones(i.e., clones Z38 and Z62) were identified to have produced progenies with higher average stem volume breeding values than that of all of the progenies. Specifically, the genetic gains for volume were 3.53% for the two clones as paternal parents, and 8.26% as the maternal parents at Age-20. Thus, both elite clones were ideal candidates for the construction of next-generation clonal seed orchards due to their synchronous reproductive phenology with greater crossing rate and higher genetic gain. These results improved the pedigree information to provide solid evidence of mating patterns for future design and effective management of seed orchards and for the development of viable long-term breeding strategies for other coniferous species.

The LGM refugia of deciduous oak and distribution development since the LGM in China

The distribution development of oak has significant effects on ecosystems and society.Long-term forest distribution studies can help to better understand the vegetation dynamics under climate change or human activities in the future.In this study,we integrated different methods(i.e.,palaeoecology,phylogeography,and species distribution models)to investigate the likely locations of glacial refugia and the postglacial development of the main deciduous oak species(i.e.,Quercus variabilis,Q.mongolica,Q.dentata,Q.aliena,Q.acutissima and Q.liaotungensis).The results indicated that mountains such as the Changbai,Qinling,and Dabie Mountains acted as the refugia in northern and central China during the Last Glacial Maximum(LGM).The present Quercus in northern China could be the result of local dispersal during the postglacial period rather than only that of long-distance migration from south to north.Climate was the main influencing factor for oak migration,while human activities did not show much influence on this widespread genus.The topography acted as a buffer and made the mountains act as refugia under a deteriorated climate.Compared with other main tree genera(e.g.,Pinus and Betula),the refugia locations and migration routes of deciduous oak species were different because of their physiological differences.The individual migration dynamics of these three genera need to be considered when modelling their dynamics.

Landscape distribution of food and nesting sites affect larval diet and nest size, but not abundance of Osmia bicornis

Habitat fragmentation is a major threat for beneficial organisms and the ecosys- tem services they provide. Multiple-habitat users such as wild bees depend on both nesting and foraging habitat. Thus, they may be affected by the fragmentation of at least two habitat types. We investigated the effects of landscape-scale amount of and patch isolation from both nesting habitat （woody plants） and foraging habitat （specific pollen sources） on the abundance and diet of Osmia bicornis L. Trap-nests of O. bicornis were studied in 30 agricultural landscapes of the Swiss Plateau. Nesting and foraging habitats were mapped in a radius of 500 m around the sites. Pollen composition of larval diet changed as isolation to the main pollen source, Ranunculus, increased, suggesting that （9. bicornis adapted its foraging strategy in function of the nest proximity to main pollen sources. Abundance of O. bicornis was neither related to isolation or amount of nesting habitat nor to isolation or abundance of food plants. Surprisingly, nests ofO. bicornis contained fewer larvae in sites at forest edge compared to isolated sites, possibly due to higher parasitism risk. This study indicates that O. bicornis can nest in a variety of situations by compensating scarcity of its main larval food by exploiting alternative food sources.

Vegetation dynamics and its response to climate change during the past 2000 years in the Altai Mountains,northwestern China

Over the past 2000 years,a high-resolution pollen record from the Yushenkule Peat(46°45′-46°57′N,90°46′-90°61′E,2374 m a.s.l.)in the south-eastern Altai Mountains of northwestern China has been used to explore the changes in vegetation and climate.The regional vegetation has been dominated by alpine meadows revealed from pollen diagrams over the past 2000 years.The pollen-based climate was warm and wet during the Roman Warm Period(0-520 AD),cold and wet during the Dark Age Cold Period(520-900 AD),warm and wet during the Medieval Warm Period(900-1300 AD),and cold and dry during the Little Ice Age(1300-1850 AD).Combined with other pollen data from the Altai Mountains,we found that the percentage of arboreal pollen showed a reduced trend along the NW-SE gradient with decreasing moisture and increasing climatic continentality of the Altai Mountains over the past 2000 years;this is consistent with modern distributions of taiga forests.We also found that the taiga(Pinus forest)have spread slightly,while the steppe(Artemisia,Poaceae and Chenopodiaceae)have recovered significantly in the Altai Mountains over the past 2000 years.In addition,the relatively warm-wet climate may promote high grassland productivity and southward expansion of steppe,which favors the formation of Mongol political and military power.