A new approach to interpret vegetation and ecosystem changes through time by establishing a correlation between surface pollen and vegetation types in the eastern central Asian desert

Abstract

The temperate desert in arid central Asia (ACA) is located along the Silk Road, an ancient land route used for economic and cultural exchange between the East and the West. In this paper, we survey of 145 surface pollen samples and related modern vegetation sample plots along an east-west desert transect in the eastern ACA in order to relate surface pollen assemblages to specific desert vegetation types. Results reveal that (1) the surface pollen assemblages reflect the modern vegetation composition in terms of dominant taxa, (2) three zonal vegetation belts are recognizable by the surface pollen assemblages, and even the six desert vegetation types with mosaic distribution are also distinct, and (3) the ratio of Chenopodiaceae and Artemisia provides no resolution in further identifying the different desert vegetation types. These findings allow us to develop a new approach for reconstructing past vegetation succession and desert ecosystem formation. Applying these calibrate ancient datasets to palaeoecologic analysis offers a method to improve the resolution at which different desert vegetation types can be distinguished and to more precisely understand the composition of desert ecosystems. The new approach is, not only, applicable to the Quaternary, but also to Neogene whose taxa are almost the same at the genus and/or family level.