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An Early Pliocene lake and its surrounding vegetation in Zhejiang, East China

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Abstract

The palynomorph composition of an Early Pliocene assemblage from Du’ao Lake, Zhejiang Province, East China, including sporomorphs and algae, was analyzed to reconstruct the vegetation and climate around the lake, as well as the environmental conditions in the lake. A subtropical evergreen and deciduous broad-leaved mixed forest surrounding the lake is inferred from the pollen data. The composition of the green algae community indicates a clear, shallow (about 5–6 m deep), mesotrophic freshwater lake. The inferred pH was about 7.0–8.0 during the algae growing season. Applying the Coexistence Approach, the climatic conditions in Early Pliocene Du’ao were: (1) mean annual temperature ranged from 18.1 to 22.0°C, (2) difference in temperature between the coldest and warmest months ranged from 14.2 to 15.1°C, (3) mean temperature of the coldest month varied from 10.7 to 12.1°C, (4) mean temperature of the warmest month ranged from 23.5 to 25.4°C, (5) mean annual precipitation varied from about 994 to 1,255 mm, (6) minimum monthly precipitation ranged from about 9 to 11 mm, and (7) maximum monthly precipitation varied from approximately 219 to 245 mm. These values indicate that the Early Pliocene climate was subtropical.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Senior Engineer Nai-Qiu Du for her help with pollen identifications. We are also grateful to Su-Ping Li for her assistance with laboratory analysis. Ya-Meng Li, Dr. Jian Yang, Dr. Yi-Feng Yao and other colleagues also assisted. This investigation was supported by the National Basic Research Program (No. 2004CB720205), National Natural Science Foundation (No. 30530050), Beijing Finance Special Fund (No. Jingcaiyuzhi[2008]0178) and State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany Special Found. The present publication is a contribution to the NECLIME project.

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  1. State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100093, Xiangshan, Beijing, People’s Republic of China

    Jin-Feng Li, Ya-Qin Hu, Yu-Fei Wang & Cheng-Sen Li

  2. Graduate University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100039, Beijing, People’s Republic of China

    Jin-Feng Li

  3. Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, 100710, Wangfujing, Beijing, People’s Republic of China

    Ya-Qin Hu

  4. Institute of Palaeontology, University of Vienna, Althanstrasse 14, 1090, Vienna, Austria

    David Kay Ferguson

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  1. Jin-Feng Li
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Li, JF., Hu, YQ., Ferguson, D.K. et al. An Early Pliocene lake and its surrounding vegetation in Zhejiang, East China. J Paleolimnol 43, 751–769 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-009-9366-z

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