Quaternary Studies

Pollen assemblages of cultivated vegetation in central and southern Hebei Province

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  • 1. College of Resources and Environment of Hebei Normal University, Shijiazhuang 050016, China;
    2. Key Laboratory of Environmental Change and Ecological Development of Hebei Province, Shijiazhuang 050016, China

Received date: 2010-11-05

  Revised date: 2010-12-12

  Online published: 2011-06-15

Supported by

Key National Natural Science Foundation of China, No.40730103; National Natural Science Foundation of China No. 40571166 and 40672107; Hebei Natural Science Foundation No.D2008000186, No.D2009000300

Abstract

The study on 82 surface soil pollen samples from different types of cultivated vegetations in central and southern parts of Hebei Province indicates that the pollen assemblages from farmlands in the plain have not only their own plant types, but also the pollen components from the nearby mountains. Arboreal pollen percentages and concentrations (dominated by Pinus) from farmlands in mountain area are higher than those in the plain, and it reduces gradually with the increasing distance away from the mountains. Taking Pinus pollen in Taihang Mountains as an example, its content is 20%-30%, 10%-20%, 20%-30% and below 16% respectively for the samples from the area of 0-50, 50-100, 100-150 and more than 150 km away from the east Taihang Mountains. The increase of Pinus pollen proportion in the central plain is probably related to the fohn effect. The spatial variation of AP from mountains to the plain in Hebei Province may be similar to the forests clearance by human activities in the early historical period. Shrubby pollen proportion is small both in mountains and in the plain, but their major components are different. Elaeagnaceae, Corylus, Ostryopsis and Oleaceae are common in mountain areas, while there are relatively high contents of Rosaceae and Vitaceae in the plain. Herbs content in the plain (about 60%) is 15% higher than that in mountains, among which the Cereals and Cruciferae pollen percentages are 5% and 2% higher respectively. Artemisia pollen percentage in the plain is lower than that in mountains. Since the human activities are weaker in mountains compared with that in the plain, the general trend is that Chenopodiaceae pollen increases from mountains to the plain gradually, reflecting the raising intensity of human activities. The fern spores of Selaginella sinensis in mountains are higher than that in the plain, but it still reaches to about 7% in the plain. The fern spores of Selaginella sinensis are not prone to be spread by wind, indicating that those in the surface soil of the plain may be carried by river water from mountains during the deposition of the plain.

Cite this article

PANG Ruiming, XU Qinghai, DING Wei, ZHANG Shengrui . Pollen assemblages of cultivated vegetation in central and southern Hebei Province[J]. Journal of Geographical Sciences, 2011 , 21(3) : 549 -560 . DOI: 10.1007/s11442-011-0863-4

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