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Changes in forest cover in China during the Holocene

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Abstract

Pollen map data at 2000-year intervals are used to reconstruct changes in Holocene forest cover in China north of the Yangtze River. In almost all regions, the early Holocene from 10 ka b.p. to 6 ka b.p. is characterised by an increase in forest cover although there was a reversal to lower forest cover at 8 ka b.p. in the eastern monsoon regions. A maximum of forest cover was reached at 6 ka b.p. in all regions except for Northeast China where forest cover peaked in the late Holocene. All regions except for Northeast China experienced a marked decline in forest cover after 6 ka b.p. Since 6 ka b.p., forest cover has decreased by about 92% in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, 64% in the easternmost part of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and 37% between the Yangtze River and the Huaihe River. In contrast, forest cover in Northeast China increased significantly from 6 ka b.p., but has declined between 2 ka b.p. and the present. Changes in forest cover prior to 6 ka b.p. were probably caused by climate, but the evident drop in forest cover since that time in most regions may have been induced predominantly by human activities.

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Acknowledgements

Special acknowledgement and sincere thanks are due to Professor H.-J. Beug for his tireless efforts in facilitating the collaborative research on Holocene vegetation history of northern China. This fruitful research was initiated in the spring of 1998 when I first visited the former Institut für Palynologie und Quartärwissenschaften, Göttingen University, as a Humboldt Fellow (Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Germany) under the supervision of H.-J. Beug.

L.S. Zhang and H.-J. Beug were involved in the earlier studies upon which this work is based. I also thank H. J. B. Birks, F. Oldfield, K.-B. Liu, S.-M. Wang, P. Xiao and N. Shi for their constructive comments on this paper. This study was partly supported by the 10th Five-Year Gongguan Program of China (2001BA611B-01) and the Special Climate Change Fund of CMA.

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  1. National Climate Center, 46 Baishiqiao Road, Beijing, 100081, P. R. China

    Guoyu Ren

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Communicated by F. Schlütz

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Ren, G. Changes in forest cover in China during the Holocene. Veget Hist Archaeobot 16, 119–126 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-006-0075-5

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