Modern pollen-vegetation relationships along altitudinal vegetation belts in the Leigong Mountain of southwestern China

Understanding the distribution,dispersal,and correlation of modern pollen with vegetation in mountainous regions is essential for establishing accurate modern analogs for fossil pollen records.This study,conducted in Leigong Mountain on the YunnanGuizhou Plateau of southwestern China,involved the collection of 35 surface soil samples from diverse vegetation communities along an elevational gradient ranging from 1210 to 1875 meters.The results reveal a close correspondence between modern pollen assemblages and vegetation zones.Principal Component Analysis(PCA)results indicate that pollen assemblages can effectively distinguish between subtropical montane evergreen broad-leaved forest(SEBF)and subtropical montane deciduous broadleaved forest(SDBF).However,both SEBF and SDBF show significant overlap with subtropical montane evergreen-deciduous broad-leaved mixed forest(SEMF).Detrended Correspondence Analysis(DCA)results clearly distinguish the three vegetation zones,and the first axis of DCA shows a significant positive correlation with elevation(p<0.01,R=0.48).Discriminant Analysis(DA)successfully assigns 94.4%of the modern pollen samples to their respective vegetation zones.Pollen taxa such as Impatiens,Astertype,and Rosaceae exhibit significant indicative capabilities for the SEBF zone,effectively distinguishing this vegetation zone from others.Pinus and Alnus display overrepresentation in the Leigong Mountain region,while Quercus(D,deciduous-type)and Poaceae exhibit high representation in the SEBF zone.In the SEBF zone,both pollen diversity and richness are the lowest.Our study reveals the complex relationship between the richness and diversity of pollen and vegetation.The diversity and richness of tree and shrub pollen are found to be lower than those of the corresponding plants.The pollen-vegetation relationship elucidated in this study serves as a critical reference for reconstructing ancient environments from fossil pollen retrieved in this region.

Spatial Distribution of Dissolved Inorganic Nutrients and Phytoplankton around Kota Kinabalu Wetland, Sabah, Malaysia

Kota Kinabalu Wetland is importantly habited of mangrove, diverse aquatic flora and fauna as well as feeding stop for migratory birds. This wetland is inundated with the tidal flow, as connected with a small river and nearby coastal areas, thus. A study was carried out to determine the spatial distribution of dissolved inorganic nutrients and phytoplankton diversity at Kota Kinabalu (KK) Wetlands. Five stations, in which river mouth of Likas Bay, river channel (two stations) and inundated area (two stations) in KK Wetland were selected for this study. In-situ parameters of water, water for nutrients and phytoplankton samples were collected from May 2019 until October 2019. The highest concentration of nitrate (0.115 mg/L) was recorded at inundated area of wetland (S5) while the lowest nitrate concentration (0.0047 mg/L) was found at river (S3) flowing towards wetland. The concentrations of ammonia (0.2004 to 2.311 mg/L) were recorded relatively higher at every station compared to other dissolved inorganic nutrients (DIN). The concentration of phosphate was determined in the ranges of 0.0089 - 0.0513 mg/L. Nitrate, ammonia and phosphate showed no significant difference (P = 0.737) in terms of DIN concentration at all five sampling stations during the study period. Twenty-four genera of phytoplankton were identified, dominated by diatoms (55.29%), followed by dinoflagellates (24.95%), Chrysophyta (11.15%), Spirotrichea (5.28%) and Cyanophyta (3.33%). Dominating species throughout the study period include Chaetoceros sp., Pseduo-nitzschia sp., and Cylindrotheca closterium, Peridinium quinquecorne and Alexandrium sp. Phytoplankton species compositions were observed the highest in river mouth area in July with the highest density of 12.115 × 104 cells/mL. The study showed that nutrient concentration was insignificant (P = 0.614) in altering the phytoplankton density, as influences with the tidal water.