Abstract
Recent and subfossil pollen spectra from the Alashan Plateau are presented in order to provide information on desert plant representation and on recent changes in vegetation and climate in this remote area in northern China. The desert vegetation composition is faithfully represented by the surface pollen spectra. The comparison of the desert plant species to the related pollen taxa yielded the following sequence from over-representation to under-representation: Chenopodiaceae, Artemisia, Ephedra fragilis-type s.l., Reaumuria, Nitraria and Calligonum. A 72 cm long sediment record from a small hydrologically-closed inter-dune lake (SE Badan Jilin Sand Sea, southern Alashan Plateau) covering the past ∼160 years (dated by137Cs) was analysed palynologically. Intervals of denser Artemisia coverage on the sand dunes around the lake, indicating wetter climate, occurred from the mid-1850s to the mid-1870s, during the first two decades of the 20th century and from the late 1930s to the beginning of the 1960s.
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Acknowledgements
The field excursions to China and sample analysis were supported by the German Research Council (KU 534/2-2), by the Sino-German Research Center on Arid Environment (University of Lanzhou, Freie Universität Berlin) and by the British Council Higher Education Link (University of Lanzhou, University College London; PEK/0992/306). The first author is very grateful for having received financial support by Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes and by the European Union as a Marie Curie fellowship at the University of Bergen (Norway)
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Herzschuh, U., Kürschner, H., Battarbee, R. et al. Desert plant pollen production and a 160-year record of vegetation and climate change on the Alashan Plateau, NW China. Veget Hist Archaeobot 15, 181–190 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-005-0031-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-005-0031-9