Climate changes inferred from integrated multi-site pollen data in northern Taiwan
Resource
JOURNAL OF ASIAN EARTH SCIENCES, 40(6), 1164-1170
Journal
Journal of Asian Earth Sciences
Pages
1164-1170
Date Issued
2011
Date
2011
Author(s)
Abstract
In this study, we synthesized the fossil pollen data from 10 lake sediments and 2 land cores to integrate the alteration of forest covered areas in northern Taiwan with changes in humidity and temperature over the last 2000 years. The abundance of arboreal pollen, fern spores and Tsuga pollen in the pollen and spore assemblages were used as indicators. Our results suggested that the climate in northern Taiwan was stably cool and dry during 2000-1000. cal. yr BP, but changed to wet and warm during 1000-500. cal. yr BP, which corresponded to the Medieval Warm Period (MWP). In addition, an increased density and dispersal of Tsuga pollen corresponding to 500-200. cal. yr BP was observed, which corresponded to the Little Ice Age (LIA). In recent years, a decline in Tsuga pollen density and increased fern spore density has been observed, which indicates an increase in temperature associated with elevated rainfall. Based on the synthesized data set, we conducted GIS mapping of such changes in the north of Taiwan over time. The results revealed that the temporal and spatial climate changes could be inferred from the palynological GIS mapping method, and that the fluctuations in temperature over time matched well with the global climate events, including MWP, LIA and recent warming. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd.
Subjects
Climate change; GIS mapping; Multi-site pollen analysis; Taiwan
Other Subjects
GIS; global climate; global warming; Little Ice Age; mapping method; Medieval Warm Period; paleoclimate; palynology; relative humidity; spatial data; temperature gradient; Taiwan; Filicophyta; Tsuga
Type
journal article
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