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Chinese Journal of Applied Ecology ›› 2021, Vol. 32 ›› Issue (2): 441-452.doi: 10.13287/j.1001-9332.202102.005

• Special Features of Palaeoecology • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Quantitative relationship between modern surface pollen and plant community at quadrat scale

TAN Bin1, XU De-yu1, ZHANG Yun2, KONG Zhao-chen2, NI Jian1,3*   

  1. 1College of Che-mistry and Life Sciences, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua 321004, Zhejiang, China;
    2State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Changes, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China;
    3Jinhua Mountain Observation and Research Station for Subtropical Forest Ecosystems, Jinhua 321004, Zhejiang, China
  • Received:2020-03-11 Accepted:2020-07-16 Online:2021-02-15 Published:2021-08-15
  • Contact: *E-mail: nijian@zjnu.edu.cn
  • Supported by:
    Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDA19050103) and the Ten Thousand Talents Program of Zhejiang Province (2019R52014)

Abstract: Establishing a precise relationship between modern vegetation and surface pollen is the basis and key to quantitatively reconstruct paleovegetation and paleoclimate based on pollen records. The record of plant community plots has been less considered in the statistical analysis of modern vegetation and surface pollen, which limits the quantitative estimation of its precise relationship. In this study, the quantitative relationships of compositions and quantities between modern surface pollen and plant community were analyzed, based on the Bray-Curtis dissimilarity, through the analysis of 33 surface soil samples and corresponding vegetation plots from forest, meadow steppe, typical steppe and desert steppe on the Northeast China Transect. Results showed that, in a single plot, the relationships between vegetation and pollen in compositions and quantities were different across all families and genera, dominant and common families and genera, and less common and rare families and genera, respectively, due to the differences in pollen dispersal and pollen productivity. There were significant differences among different vegetation types. The compositions of meadow steppe differed greatly, while all families and genera, dominant and common families and genera differed greatly in the quantitative relationship in forest. Less common and rare families and genera differed greatly in the compositions in meadow steppe. The vegetation-pollen relationship of different families and genera was basically the same in terms of composition and quantities. According to the Bray-Curtis dissimilarity, pollen taxa could be divided into three types: over-representative, under-representative and representative types. This dissimilarity index represented both the species composition and quantity relationship between vegetation and pollen both at quadrat scale and at specie level, which could be used as an indicator to quantitatively describe the modern vegetation-pollen relationship.

Key words: forest, steppe, quadrat, pollen-vegetation relationship, Bray-Curtis dissimilarity