Phytolith assemblages in modern top soils under plant communities of Northern and Western Altay, Russia

M Yu Solomonova,N V Elesova,M M Silantyeva,M S Blinnikov,N Yu Speranskaja

doi:10.15421/2019_122

Abstract

We investigated 120 assemblages of phytoliths from modern top soils of 40 different plant communities of Northern and Western Altay region of Russia. The samples were collected from elevations between 360 m and 2360 m above sea level. Using statistical analyses, it was discovered that many communities produce sufficiently distinct assemblages based on standard morphotypes. Specifically we studied 6 kinds of forests (larch, spruce, fir, pine, cedar pine and birch-dominated), 3 kinds of steppes (true, meadow and petrophytic), 5 kinds of meadows (steppe-like, upland dry, wet floodplain, subalpine, alpine), alpine tundra, and mountain shrubland communities. The communities were not evenly sampled, with more redundancy in some types than in others. Using PCA, it was possible to reveal the few morphotypes most responsible for distinguishing different communities, e.g., low conical rondels, rondel sum, long cell sum, lanceolate cells with massive base, and bulliform cell sum.

Highlights

Phytolith analysis is one of a few rapidly developing methods of paleoenvironmental analysis in world science
The greatest differences were observed for wavy plates, polylobates, pseudo-bilobates, low trapezoid and conical rondels, lanceolate forms with long awn, and a few different long cells and plates (Figure 1)
Our results reveal a few distinct groups of phytolith assemblages in the study area: 1) high-elevation communities; 2) steppe and meadow-steppe communities at lower elevations, 3) forests and meadows at intermediate elevations

Summary

Introduction

Phytolith analysis is one of a few rapidly developing methods of paleoenvironmental analysis in world science. New and improved studies of subrecent phytolith assemblages formed in top soils under plant communities allow to detect subtle changes in their taxa composition. Distinct phytoliths (plant opal or hydrogenated silica bodies) form in many taxa (Wallis, 2003; Katz, 2014; 2015; An, 2016), the most abundant and best studied are those produced in grasses (Poaceae) (Golyeva, 2001, 2007; Madella et al, 2005; Piperno, 2006; Strömberg, 2011; Blinnikov et al, 2013) and some other monocots (Ollendorf, 1992; Benvenuto et al, 2015; Bobrov et al, 2016; Stevanato et al, 2019). Kamanina (1992) and Blinnikov (1994) were among the first in Russia to use a method of analyzing subrecent phytolith assemblages in soils instead of relying on indicator forms. We have additional plots in Northern and Western Altay of Russia that have been investigated

Methods

Results

Conclusion