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Changes in plant diversity on the Chinese Loess Plateau since the Last Glacial Maximum

  • Article
  • Geology
  • Published:
Chinese Science Bulletin

Abstract

Changes in biodiversity during periods of global warming are of broad public concern. To study the effect of the warming process on the ecosystem, we carried out pollen analyses on samples from seven selected sections at Qingyang, Ningxian, Yangling, Binxian, Baoji, Yanshi, and Lingbao on the Chinese Loess Plateau in order systematically to evaluate changes in plant diversity since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). The plant richness indices (Simpson’s diversity index and rarefaction analysis) indicated that the plant diversity of each section increased during the process of warming from the LGM to the Holocene Optimum, especially at Baoji and Lingbao. These results are consistent with many long-timescale geological records, which show that warming can increase biodiversity; therefore, the popular viewpoint that warming leads to biodiversity loss or species extinction needs to be re-examined.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (2010CB950204) and the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDA05120204). Thanks to Zuoling Chen, Shaohua Feng, and Chenxi Xu for sampling; Yufen Cheng for pollen extraction; and Professors Xiaoqiang Li and Shiling Yang, Drs. Wenying Jiang, Xinying Zhou, Zihua Tang, and Xu Wang for their helpful discussions.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Cenozoic Geology and Environment, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100029, China

    Shujun Zhao & Zhongli Ding

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Shujun Zhao

Authors
  1. Shujun Zhao
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  2. Zhongli Ding
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Correspondence to Shujun Zhao.

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Zhao, S., Ding, Z. Changes in plant diversity on the Chinese Loess Plateau since the Last Glacial Maximum. Chin. Sci. Bull. 59, 4096–4100 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-014-0541-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-014-0541-x

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