Pollen Record of Surface Sediments from Vertical Forest Zones of Changbai Mountain, Northeast China and Their Relations to the Modern Vegetation

Twenty-nine surface samples (mosses) from five vertical distribution vegetation zones in Changbai Mountain, Northeast China have been palynologically analyzed and the results were tested by correspondence analysis. The results show that, except a few samples, arboreal pollen is predominant in almost all pollen assemblages; Pinus and Betula are the main pollen types in quantities and they are found in all vegetation zones of Changbai Mountain. The highest pollen proportion of Pinus occurs in the mixed conifer and broadleaved forest where Pinus koraiensis is the main component; Betula pollen is found in high percentage in both subalpine B. ermanii forest and broadleaved deciduous forest predominated by Betula and Quercus; in the former Betula pollen is accompanied by cold-tolerant shrub such as Rhododendron; whereas in the latter it appears a large amount of fern spores. Pollen assemblage of broadleaved deciduous forests is marked by high diversity and proportions of deciduous trees and a large number of fern spores. Subalpine conifer forest is distinguished by high percentage of Picea pollen. Although tree pollen is slightly dominated, very few or absent of fern spores and increasing of herb and small shrub pollen proportions, particularly predominance of Rhododendron in herbaceous pollen and occurrence of tundra indicator type-Dryas pollen distinguish pollen assemblages of alpine tundra.

Implications of mass elevation effect for the altitudinal patterns of global ecology

The varied altitudinal gradient of climate and vegetation is further complicated by mass elevation effect(MEE), especially in high and extensive mountain regions. However, this effect and its implications for mountain altitudinal belts have not been well studied until recently. This paper provides an overview of the research carried out in the past 5 years. MEE is virtually the heating effect of mountain massifs and can be defined as the temperature difference on a given elevation between inside and outside of a mountain mass. It can be digitally modelled with three factors of intra-mountain base elevation(MBE), latitude and hygrometric continentality; MBE usually acts as the primary factor for the magnitude of MEE and, to a great extent, could represent MEE. MEE leads to higher treelines in the interior than in the outside of mountain masses. It makes montane forests to grow at 4800–4900 m and snowlines to develop at about 6000 m in the southern Tibetan Plateau and the central Andes, and large areas of forests to live above 3500 m in a lot of high mountains of the world. The altitudinal distribution of global treelines can be modelled with high precision when taking into account MEE and the result shows that MEE contributes the most to treeline distribution pattern. Without MEE, forests could only develop upmost to about 3500 m above sea level and the world ecological pattern would be much simpler. The quantification of MEE should be further improved with higher resolution data and its global implications are to be further revealed.

Vertical and seasonal distribution of flying beetles in a suburban temperate deciduous forest collected by water pan trap

Vertical and seasonal distributions of flying beetles were investigated in asuburban temperate deciduous forest in Kanazawa, Japan using water pan traps to determine the abundance and composition among vertical strata, change in the abundance and composition through seasons and determinant factors in generating the distributions. Traps were placed at three levels (0.5 m, 10 m, and 20 m above ground) on a tower. Samplings were carried out seasonally from May to November in 1999 and 2000. Variations in the abundance of flying beetles were observed from different layers. The results showed that the abundance and composition of flying beetles varied among strata and seasons. In both 1999 and 2000,Elateridae was consistently most abundant in the bottom layer, while Attelabidae and Cantharidae were most abundant in the upper layer. In 1999, Eucnemidae and overall scavengers were most abundance in the bottom layer, but results were not consistent with those in 2000. In general, the abundance of herbivores reaches a peak in the early season(May/June) and decreases in the following months. Peaks of abundance in predators vary vertically. In the bottom layer a peak was observed in the early season (May/June), while in the upper layer this was observed in July. Scavengers had two peaks, in May/June and September. These patterns indicated that vertical distributions in the abundance of differentfeeding guilds varied through seasons.