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

doi:10.1007/s11707-021-0906-9

Front. Earth Sci.

2022, Vol. 16

Issue (2) : 513-522 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11707-021-0906-9

RESEARCH ARTICLE

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

Dongliang ZHANG^1,^2,^3,⁴(

), Yunpeng YANG^5,⁶, Min RAN^5,⁶, Bo LAN⁷, Hongyan ZHAO⁸, Qi LIU⁹

¹. State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011, China
². Research Center for Ecology and Environment of Central Asia, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011, China.
³. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
⁴. State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi’an 710061, China
⁵. College of Environment and Planning, Henan University, Kaifeng 475004, China
⁶. Key Laboratory of Geospatial Technology for the Middle and Lower Yellow River Regions (Ministry of Education), Henan University, Kaifeng 475004, China
⁷. School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Chongqing Three Gorges University, Chongqing 404000, China
⁸. School of Earth Science, Northeast Normal University, Changchun 130024, China
⁹. College of Resource and Environmental Sciences, Xinjiang University, Urumqi 830046, China

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Abstract

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.

Keywords pollen analysis vegetation dynamics past 2000 years Altai mountains northwestern China

Corresponding Author(s): Dongliang ZHANG

About author: Tongcan Cui and Yizhe Hou contributed equally to this work.

Online First Date: 23 September 2021 Issue Date: 26 August 2022

Cite this article:

Dongliang ZHANG,Yunpeng YANG,Min RAN, et al. Vegetation dynamics and its response to climate change during the past 2000 years in the Altai Mountains, northwestern China[J]. Front. Earth Sci., 2022, 16(2): 513-522.

URL:

https://academic.hep.com.cn/fesci/EN/10.1007/s11707-021-0906-9
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fesci/EN/Y2022/V16/I2/513

Fig.1 Physiographic settings of Yushenkule (YSKL) Peatland (site 1). (a) geomorphic and topographic backgrounds. The cited sites in this study include: ②–Halasazi Peatland; ③–Tuolehaite Peatland, ④–Big Black Peatland, ⑤–Kanas Lake, ⑥–Narenxia Peatland, ⑦–Bayan Nuur, ⑧–Teletskoye Lake, ⑨–Manzherok Lake and ⑩–SIB04 peat core in southern Siberian Lowland. (b) and (c) panorama of YSKL Peatland and the coring site (white vertical arrow).

Fig.2 Bacon depth-age model for YSKL core (core length: 83 cm), overlaying the calibrated distributions of the individual dates (blue). Dashed lines indicate the model’s 95% probability intervals. Note: the information of dates was showed in Table 1 from Yang et al. (2019a).

Tab.1 AMS ¹⁴C dating results of Yushenkule Peatland (reported in Yang et al. (2019a)).

Fig.3 Pollen data of YSKL peat core.

Fig.4 PCA ordination of principal 17 pollen taxa and samples from YSKL core.

Fig.5 a: total solar irradiance (Steinhilber et al., 2009); b: tree-ring-recorded summer temperature reconstruction in the Altai Mountains (Büntgen et al., 2016); c: PCA axis 1 in YSKL Peatland (this study); d: Cyperaceae/Poaceae (Cy/Po) ratios in YSKL Peatland (this study); e: PCA axis 2 in YSKL Peatland (this study); f: δ¹³C_cellulose-indicated moisture in YSKL Peatland (Yang et al., 2019a); g: Artemisia/Chenopodiaceae (A/C) ratios in Bayan Nuur (Yang et al., 2019b); h: moisture index in Teletskoye Lake (Rudaya et al., 2012); i: moisture index in Manzherok Lake (Blyakharchuk et al., 2017); j: water table depth in southern Siberian Lowland (Wills et al., 2015). Note: RWP-Roman Warm Period, DACP-Dark Age Cold Period, MWP-Medieval Warm Period, LIA-Little Ice Age and CWP-Current Warm Period.

Fig.6 Percentages of arboreal pollen (AP) and non-arboreal pollen (NAP), selected main pollen proportions of Pinus, Picea, Betula, Larix, Artemisia, Chenopodiaceae, Poaceae and Cyperaceae in the Altai Mountains during the past 2000 years. Yellow belt indicates the Mongol Empire period.

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