Relationships between modern pollen and vegetation and climate on the eastern Tibetan Plateau

The Tibetan Plateau ecosystem is fragile and sensitive to climate change. Understanding the relationships between modern pollen and the vegetation and climate of the region is critical for the evaluation of ecological processes. Here, we explore modern pollen assemblages of typical land-cover types at a large spatial scale by analyzing 36 surface samples from the southeastern Tibetan Plateau, supplemented by typical desert, desert-steppe, and steppe meadow transition data selected from the Chinese Surface Pollen Database, giving a total of 75 samples. We used redundancy analysis (RDA) to explore the responses of vegetation in the assemblages to regional climate. Our results show that pollen assemblages generally reflect the vegetation composition: assemblages from alpine meadow samples are dominated by Cyperaceae, Asteraceae, Rosaceae, and Polygonaceae; alpine shrublands mainly comprise Fabaceae, Rosaceae, Ericaceae, and Quercus (Q. spinosa); and coniferous forest surface samples mainly comprise Picea, Abies, Pinus, and Betulaceae. Our RDA shows that mean annual precipitation (MAP) is the main meteorological factor affecting the pollen assemblage and vegetation type; MAP positively correlates with percentages of Cyperaceae, Poaceae, Rosaceae, and Asteraceae, and negatively correlates with percentages of Chenopodiaceae, Ephedraceae, Nitraria, and Tamaricaceae. The ratio of Artemisia to Chenopodiaceae is a useful indicator to distinguish temperate desert from other land-cover types on the Tibetan Plateau, while the ratio of Cyperaceae + Asteraceae to Artemisia + Chenopodiaceae can be used to distinguish arid desert from other land-cover types, and may provide a useful altitude index for the eastern Tibetan Plateau.