Human activities have reduced plant diversity in eastern China over the last two millennia

Abstract

Understanding the history and regional singularities of human impact on vegetation is key to developing strategies for sustainable ecosystem management. In this study, fossil and modern pollen datasets from China are employed to investigate temporal changes in pollen composition, analogue quality, and pollen diversity during the Holocene. Anthropogenic disturbance and vegetation's responses are also assessed.Results reveal that pollen assemblages from non-forest communities fail to provide evidence of human impact for the western part of China (annual precipitation less than 400 mm and/or elevation more than 3000 m.a.s.l.), as inferred from the stable quality of modern analogues, principal components, and diversity of species and communities throughout the Holocene. For the eastern part of China, the proportion of fossil pollen spectra with good modern analogues increases from ca. 50% to ca. 80% during the last 2 millennia, indicating an enhanced intensity of anthropogenic disturbance on vegetation. This disturbance has caused the pollen spectra to become taxonomically less diverse over space (reduced abundances of arboreal taxa and increased abundances of herbaceous taxa), highlighting a reduced south-north differentiation and divergence from past vegetation between regions in the eastern part of China.We recommend that care is taken in eastern China when basing the development of ecosystem management strategies on vegetation changes in the region during the last 2000 years, since humans have significantly disturbed the vegetation during this period.

Warmth Favored Dust Activities on the Northeastern Qinghai‐Tibet Plateau

“…(f) Hydrodynamic intensity reconstructed from Lake Boston (Xie et al., 2021). (g) Vegetation conditions reconstructed by pollen Artemisia/Chenopodiaceae ratio from Wulungu Lake (Cao et al., 2022).…”

Variations in Holocene fire activity and its controls in the Ningshao Plain, eastern China

“…Intensive human activity also influenced natural vegetation during this period (Cao et al . 2022; He et al . 2022).…”

Large mammals and trees in eastern monsoonal China: anthropogenic losses since the Late Pleistocene and restoration prospects in the Anthropocene

“…Despite early agricultural land use in some individual localities, human activities did not become a large‐scale dominant shaping force of vegetation dynamics across EMC until the late Holocene (Zhao et al ., 2009; Li et al ., 2020 a ; Cao et al ., 2022). Specifically, massive anthropogenic deforestation interpreted from pollen records happened asynchronously in northern and southern EMC (II and III in Fig.…”

“…China has a large geographical extent, a long history as home to diverse megabiota, and a well‐recorded, long cultural history of intensified human exploitation and associated megabiota losses (Turvey, Crees & Di Fonzo, 2015; Turvey et al ., 2017; Teng et al ., 2020; Cao et al ., 2022). Its long‐term socio‐ecological dynamics have transformed self‐regulating biodiverse ecosystems into human‐dominated, biologically downsized, and ecologically simplified landscapes even at broad spatial scales (Turvey et al ., 2017; Teng et al ., 2020; Cao et al ., 2022).…”

“…China has a large geographical extent, a long history as home to diverse megabiota, and a well‐recorded, long cultural history of intensified human exploitation and associated megabiota losses (Turvey, Crees & Di Fonzo, 2015; Turvey et al ., 2017; Teng et al ., 2020; Cao et al ., 2022). Its long‐term socio‐ecological dynamics have transformed self‐regulating biodiverse ecosystems into human‐dominated, biologically downsized, and ecologically simplified landscapes even at broad spatial scales (Turvey et al ., 2017; Teng et al ., 2020; Cao et al ., 2022). Recently, increasingly faced with major environmental challenges including climate change, biodiversity loss, and habitat degradation, China has made strong commitments to sustainability for the sake of future generations, mandating not only active and effective strategies for conservation and management (Mi et al ., 2021), but also a fundamental shift towards values that promote human–nature coexistence (the Kunming Declaration on 13 October 2021 at the 15th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity).…”