查看文章

Large-scale palaeovegetation reconstruction plays a critical role in improving our understanding of the response of vegetation to climate change and in reducing the uncertainty in predictions of vegetation change under global warming scenarios. Here, we present quantitative vegetation reconstructions for China since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), using 286 selected fossil pollen records analyzed using the biomization method. The results show that from 23 to 19 ka (1 ka = 1000 cal yr BP), steppe and desert expanded southeastwards, dominating northern China, whereas forest in eastern China shrank southwards to near the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River; the percentage of forested sites at this time was the lowest during the studied interval. Forest then developed gradually during 18–12 ka. During the early and middle Holocene, tropical seasonal forest, broad-leaved evergreen/warm …