Surface soil phytoliths as vegetation and altitude indicators: a study from the southern Himalaya.
Surface soil phytoliths as vegetation and altitude indicators: a study from the southern Himalaya.
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表层土壤植硅体作为植被和海拔指标：来自喜马拉雅山南部的一项研究
DOI：
10.1038/srep15523
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发表时间：
2015-10-26
影响因子：
4.6
通讯作者：
Chu G
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
An X;Lu H;Chu G
植硅体是山地生态系统为数不多的可用海拔植被代表之一。本研究分析了从喜马拉雅山南部五个海拔高度带采集的 41 个表土植硅体样本，范围从热带森林（海拔 1,000 米）到亚热带森林（海拔 1,000-2,000 米），再到温带森林（海拔 2,000-3,000 米） a.s.l.），到亚高山森林（3,000–4,100米 a.s.l.）和 最后到达高山灌木丛（海拔高度 4,100–5,200 米）。统计结果表明，植硅体组合与这5个海拔植被带之间具有良好的相关性：识别出的5个植硅体组合有效地区分了这5个海拔植被带。特别是，针叶树植硅体准确地指示了林线。此外，我们还测试了植硅体指数 Ic（用于估计早熟禾相对于总草含量的百分比的代理）作为植硅体种类与海拔的量化指标。正如预期的那样，IC 随着高度的增加而增加。对植硅体的研究为分析禾本科植被的组成提供了初步基础。此外，冗余分析和判别分析还表明植硅体组合与海拔之间存在显着相关性。因此，我们的研究为重建山区古植被和古海拔的变化提供了最新的类比。
Phytoliths represent one of the few available altitudinal vegetation proxies for mountain ecosystems. This study analyzed 41 topsoil phytolith samples collected from five altitudinal zones in the southern Himalaya as far as and beyond, the timberline, from tropical forest (up to 1,000 m a.s.l.) to subtropical forest (1,000–2,000 m a.s.l.), to temperate forest (2,000–3,000 m a.s.l.), to subalpine forest (3,000–4,100 m a.s.l.) and finally to alpine scrub (4,100–5,200 m a.s.l.). The statistical results show a good correlation between phytolith assemblages and these five altitudinal vegetation zones: the five phytolith assemblages identified effectively differentiated these five altitudinal vegetation zones. In particular, coniferous phytoliths accurately indicated the timberline. Additionally, we tested the phytolith index Ic (a proxy for estimating the percentage of Pooideaevis-à-visthe total grass content) as a quantifier of phytolith varietyversusaltitude. Ic increased along altitude, as expected. An investigation of phytoliths provided an initial basis for the analysis of the composition of gramineous vegetation. Furthermore, redundancy analysis and discriminant analysis also suggested a significant correlation between phytolith assemblages and altitude. Our research therefore provides an up-to-date analogue for the reconstruction of changes to palaeovegetation and palaeoaltitude in mountainous areas.