VEGETATION HISTORY OF THE LOESS PLATEAU OF CHINA DURING THE LAST 100,000 YEARS BASED ON POLLEN DATA

This paper summarizes the vegetation history of the past 100,000 years for the Loess Plateau, Central China. The report is primarily based o n a recent pollen record from Weinan and on prior records from the Pla teau. The pollen diagram of the loess-paleosol sequence at Weinan, in the southern part of the Plateau, displays a predominance of arid shru bs or herbs (Artemisia, Chenopodiaceae) alternating with abundant mesi c herbs such as Cyperaceae, Ranuculaceae and Liliaceae indicating a su ccession of steppe and meadow-steppe environments during the past 100 ka. Forest vegetation developed in a few comparatively short time inte rvals: Ulmus forest at 95.1-90.7 ka; Corylus woodland at 25.0-21.1 ka, and Tsuga stand at 13.7-11.8 ka. Previously published pollen data wit h more-or-less reliable dates also indicates that there were different types of steppe vegetation dominating the last 100 ka. The present la ck of forest on the Plateau has been explained by plant ecologists as being due to anthropogenic effects. However, in the context of the las t 100 ka it appears that there are non-human factors which may have co ntributed to the treelessness of the Plateau, such as the free-drainin g nature of loess. Copyright (C) 1996 INQUA/Elsevier Science Ltd