Vegetation and Climate Changes in the Western Part of the Loess Plateau since 13 ka BP

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  • 1. School of Geography Science, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China;
    2. MOE Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China;
    3. Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, CAS, Nanjing, 210008, China;
    4. College of Resources Science and Technology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China

Received date: 2007-10-20

  Revised date: 2007-11-27

  Online published: 2008-03-25

Supported by

National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, 40025105; National Natural Science Foundation of China, No.40331012; NSF Project, No.EAR 0402509; No.BCS 00-78557; Sci-tech Fund from Southwest University, No.104220-20710904

Abstract

Sporo-pollen records from the western part of Chinese Loess Plateau revealed a detailed history of vegetation variation and associated climate changes since 13 ka BP. Before 12.1 ka BP, steppe or desert-steppe vegetation dominated landscape, which was then replaced by a coniferous forest under a generally wet climate (12.1-11.0 ka BP). The vegetation was degenerated into steppe landscape and further into a desert-steppe landscape from 11.0 to 9.8 ka BP. After a brief episode of a cool and wet climate (9.8-9.6 ka BP), a relatively mild and dry condition prevailed during the early Holocene (9.6-7.6 ka BP). The most favourable climate of warm and humid period occurred during mid-Holocene (7.6-4.0 ka BP) marked by forest-steppe landscape, and an alternation of steppe and desert-steppe has occurred since ~4.0 ka BP.

Cite this article

SUN Aizhi, FENG Zhaodong, TANG Lingyu,MA Yuzhen . Vegetation and Climate Changes in the Western Part of the Loess Plateau since 13 ka BP[J]. Acta Geographica Sinica, 2008 , 63(3) : 280 -292 . DOI: 10.11821/xb200803006

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