Research articleAn updated biomization scheme and vegetation reconstruction based on a synthesis of modern and mid-Holocene pollen data in China
Introduction
The BIOME6000 project (Prentice and Webb, 1998) aimed to reconstruct global vegetation patterns at 6000 14C yr B.P. and 18,000 14C yr B.P., based on the primary palaeoecological data available at the time (with appropriate quality controls) interpreted by quantitative methods. The mid-Holocene (~6000 14C yr B.P.) was a relatively warm interval when the Northern Hemisphere received more insolation in summer and less in winter compared to the 1970s (Berger, 1978). Both geological records (e.g., Shi et al., 1993; Prentice and Jolly, 2000; Wu et al., 2019a) and climate simulations (e.g., Ganopolski et al., 1998; Braconnot et al., 2007; Jiang et al., 2012; Herzschuh et al., 2019) indicate that the mid-Holocene experienced distinct variations.
in vegetation. Reconstruction of paleovegetation patterns is crucial for: (1) understanding vegetation-climate interactions (Wu et al., 2019b); (2) evaluating the impact of vegetation changes on past human settlements and cultural development (Bonsall et al., 2002; Fyfe et al., 2010); and (3) developing a geological perspective with respect to palaeovegetation patterns (e.g., mid-Holocene) to inform current conservation strategies (Petit et al., 2008).
The biomization method adopted by BIOME6000 assigns different biomes based on both fossil- and modern pollen data, and thus provides biome maps which are directly comparable with climate model-derived biomes (Prentice et al., 1992, Prentice et al., 1996; Binney et al., 2017). The Taxa-PFTs-Biome scheme was tested in order to evaluate its ability to correctly assign modern pollen surface samples to biomes and to delineate the major vegetation types within Europe (Prentice et al., 1996), the former Soviet Union, Mongolia (Tarasov et al., 1998), Africa and the Mediterranean (Jolly et al., 1998; Vincens et al., 2006; Lebamba et al., 2009), North America (Williams et al., 1998; Thompson and Anderson, 2000; Marchant et al., 2009), Japan (Takahara et al., 2000; Gotanda et al., 2002), Australia and southeast Asia (Pickett et al., 2004), the Arctic regions (north of 55°N, Bigelow et al., 2003), and China (Yu et al., 1998, Yu et al., 2000; Sun et al., 1999; MCQPDS, 2000; Ni et al., 2010; Sun and Feng, 2013; Sun et al., 2017; Li et al., 2019). Recently, a pseudobiomization (PBM) approach has been developed and applied in Europe to transform fossil pollen data into land-cover classes, to reconstruct Holocene anthropogenic land-use changes (Fyfe et al., 2010; Woodbridge et al., 2014, Woodbridge et al., 2018).
China is an important region for BIOME6000 (Sun et al., 1999) because of its large area (spanning the latitudinal zone from ~15°N to 55°N) and its high degree of vegetation diversity under the influences of the East Asian Monsoon (EAM) and the Westerlies (CCPGC, 1984; Chen et al., 2019). For example, the biome distribution is characterized by a latitudinal pattern with tropical rainforest/tropical seasonal forest in the south, subtropical broadleaved evergreen/warm-temperate mixed forest and cool-temperate deciduous forest in the central region, and cold-temperature mixed forest in the north (Hou et al., 1982; Zhang, 2007). China's geographic location between the Pacific Ocean to the east and the Eurasian continent to the west, results in an east-west gradient from forest to steppe and desert (Hou et al., 1982; Zhang, 2007). Moreover, the Tibetan Plateau (mean elevation above 4000 m a.s.l.) is characterized by elevation-dependent vegetation zonation with large areas of treeless alpine vegetation (Hou et al., 1982; Zhang, 2007). Therefore, similarly to the scale of BIOME6000, China not only needs a biomization scheme compatible at a global level, but also needs a regional scheme that is appropriate for the vegetation changes of EAM.
At present, two regional Taxa-PFTs-Biome schemes are commonly used in China: (1) MCQPDB-2000 (Members of China Quaternary Pollen Data Base) (MCQPDB, 2000); and (2) Ni-2010 (Ni et al., 2010). Because these two schemes are classified with a view to conforming to the global scheme, they do not completely match the potential natural vegetation of China. For example, there are three vegetation types (e.g., Southern subtropical broadleaf evergreen forest, middle subtropical broadleaf evergreen forest, Warm-temperate mixed forest) in the subtropical region of China (e.g., from 23°N to 35°N and from 100°E to 122°E). However, only one biome (Broadleaf evergreen forest) in MCQPDB-2000 and two biomes (Warm-temperate evergreen broadleaf and mixed forest, Warm-temperate evergreen broadleaf forest) in Ni-2010 are classified (Table S1). In addition, on the Tibetan Plateau, where three vegetation types occur (Alpine meadow, Alpine steppe, Alpine desert) under a unique alpine climate, MCQPDB-2000 only classifies one biome type (Tundra). Although the Tundra biome includes five biome types (Cushion-forb tundra, Graminoid and forb tundra, Prostrate dwarf-shrub tundra, Erect dwarf-shrub tundra, Low and high shrub tundra) in Ni-2010 scheme, they do not match well with the actual vegetation of the Tibetan Plateau. In this regard, although Song et al. (2005) have further re-classified biomes (e.g. Deciduous coniferous broad-leaf forest, Alpine meadow, Montane shrub steppe, Montane steppe, Alpine steppe) and their PFTs on the Tibetan Plateau, and Dallmeyer et al. (2011) summarized the various biomes in order to provide the best fit to the modeled vegetation types (namely forest, shrub, steppe/meadow and desert), regional biome classification and bioclimatic parameters remain incompatible with global biome and bioclimate systems (Table S1). This highlights the need for an updated regional biomization scheme capable of accurately assigning taxa to different biomes across China.
In this paper, we aim to: (1) establish an updated Taxa-PFTs-Biome scheme and use surface pollen data to test the biomization procedure; (2) produce a comprehensive synthesis of available pollen data for the mid-Holocene (6 ± 0.5 14C kyr B.P.); and (3) generate palaeovegetation maps based on individual site data for the mid-Holocene. This study is essential to refine understanding of the relationship between vegetation and climate (Wu et al., 2019a), but also reconstructing the impacts of human activities on land cover during the mid-Holocene (Yu et al., 2016).
Section snippets
Potential natural vegetation data
Information on potential natural vegetation distribution was used to validate the performance of the reconstructed biome data. The vegetation data was derived from the most comprehensive digitized vegetation map of China at the 1:1,000,000 scale (Zhang, 2007) (Fig. 1). This map has been calculated based on data from field investigations and local vegetation data from 1950s to the early 20th century, and includes vegetation community appearance, the dominant species of the communities and the
Modern biome simulation
A total of 16 biome types were simulated in this study, comprising eight new biome types: alpine meadow (ALME), alpine steppe (ALST), cool-temperate forest steppe (TEFS), cool-temperate meadow steppe (TEME), cool-temperate desert steppe (TEDS), south subtropical broadleaf evergreen (STFO), middle broadleaf evergreen forest (MTFO) and north subtropical mixed forest (WAMF) (Fig. 4a).
Forest biomes include tropical rain forest (TRFO), tropical seasonal forest (TSFO), STFO, MTFO, WAMF,
The biomization method
Based on 18 biomes, 30 PFTS, and 590 pollen taxa from 1630 surface pollen sites, an updated Taxa-PFTs-Biome scheme has been established. The biomization results indicate that 16 biome types (including 8 new types) in total can be simulated. Comparisons between the distributions of the 16 biomes with the potential natural vegetation from the same sites shows strong agreement, with 80% of the sampling sites being correctly assigned (Table 3).
Compared with the Ni-2010 scheme, the accuracy of the
Conclusions
Based on the MCQPDB-2000 and Ni-2010 biomization schemes, an updated taxa-PFTs-Biome scheme which include 18 biomes, 30 PFTs, and 590 pollen taxa from 1630 surface pollen sites in China was presented in this study. The biomization results show that a total of 16 biome types using surface pollen samples were accurately simulated, including 8 new biome types. Comparison of the distribution of 16 modern biomes with potential natural vegetation at the same sites shows a higher degree of agreement
Data availability
Restrictions from data owners mean that we are unable to provide the raw data we used in this study that came from the East Asia Pollen Database (EAPD) and the Chinese Quaternary Pollen Database (CQPD). For the EAPD and CQPD, the basic information can be found in Zheng et al. (2008) and CQPD (2000), respectively, and the raw data may be requested from Zheng Zhuo ([email protected]; School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China) and Yunli Luo ([email protected]
Declaration of Competing Interest
None.
Acknowledgments
This research was funded by the Foundation Committee Basic Science Center Project of China (Grant no. 41888101), the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDA13010106), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant nos. 41972189, 41572165, 41690114, 41877441, 41472319), and the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences.
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