Past vegetation and climate investigations using the pollen assemblages archived in various sediments have been performed for more than one century, hitherto, pollen is the most suitable proxy in reconstruction for the spatial-temporal patterns of past vegetation and climate at centennial- and global-scale, and a taxonomically harmonized and temporally standardized fossil pollen dataset is essential for these reconstructions. Following pollen data collection, taxonomic homogenization, and age–depth model revision, the pollen spectra were interpolated at a 100-year resolution, and the Holocene fossil pollen dataset was established for China. The Holocene pollen dataset includes 254 pollen spectra and 217 pollen taxa. Although the density of available pollen records is higher in the forest-steppe transition-zone, available pollen records are well distributed over all main vegetation types and climatic zones of China. The temporal range of the dataset covers the Holocene (from 11.5 to 0 cal. ka BP), with abundant pollen sites available between 8 and 2 cal ka BP. The Holocene pollen dataset is relative to the literature: Cao, X., Tian, F., Herzschuh, U., Ni, J., Xu, Q., Li, W., Zhang, Y., Luo, M., Chen, F., 2022. Human activities have reduced plant diversity in eastern China over the last two millennia, Global Change Biology (accepted). More detail on processing is provided in this literature.

File naming and required software

The Holocene pollen dataset for China is archived in EXCEL file, including the site ID, site name, longitude, latitude for each pollen record. Row of the matrix includes pollen percentages of all pollen taxa at each 100-year time window, while the columns present pollen taxa.

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Cite as:

Cao, X., Tian, F., Ni, J., Herzschuh, U. (2022). Holocene pollen dataset for China. A Big Earth Data Platform for Three Poles, DOI: 10.11888/Paleoenv.tpdc.272379. CSTR: 18406.11.Paleoenv.tpdc.272379. (Download the reference： RIS | Bibtex )

Related Literatures:

1. Cao, X., Tian, F., Herzschuh, U., Ni, J., Xu, Q., Li, W., Zhang, Y., Luo, M., Chen, F., 2022. Human activities have reduced plant diversity in eastern China over the last two millennia, Global Change Biology, DOI：https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16274.( View Details | Bibtex)

Using this data, the data citation is required to be referenced and the related literatures are suggested to be cited.

Support Program

Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition Program

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