Relative pollen productivity estimates for alpine meadow in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and their potential significance for paleovegetation reconstruction

Abstract

Alpine meadow is a common vegetation type in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The Extended R-Value (ERV) model was then used to estimate the Relevant Source Area of Pollen (RSAP) and the RPPs of five major plant taxa in the study area. Log-likelihood curves indicated that the combination of the Prentice-Sugita-Sutton model with sub-model 3 provided the best results, with an estimated RSAP of 1235 m. The RPPs of other plant taxa were lower than for Cyperaceae (=1); the RPPs for Asteraceae and Polygonaceae were similar (0.798 ± 0.162 and 0.772 ± 0.121); and those for Rosaceae (0.182 ± 0.076) and Ranunculaceae (0.084 ± 0.102) were much lower. The leave-one-out method and a comparison of the RPPs with the results of previous studies for the study area demonstrated that our RPPs are stable and credible and can be used as a modern reference for pollen-based paleovegetation reconstruction in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.