The relationship between past vegetation type and fire frequency in western Japan inferred from phytolith and charcoal records in cumulative soils

Inoue, Jun; Okunaka, Ryota; Kawano, Tatsuichiro

doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2015.02.039

Cited by 21 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…and Zoysia sp. were recognized in several previous studies (Bowdery 1999;Inoue et al 2016;Lu et al 2006;Miyabuchi and Sugiyama 2016). Electron micrographs of bulliform phytoliths of Hakonechloa macra (Japan-endemic) and Molinia japonica have been shown in Motomura et al (2010).…”

Section: Grass Bulliform Phytoliths Are Shaped Up By the Surrounding mentioning

confidence: 81%

Silicified bulliform cells of Poaceae: morphological characteristics that distinguish subfamilies

Chen

Tsang

2020

Bot Stud

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Background: Grass phytoliths are the most common phytoliths in sediments; recognizing grass phytolith types is important when using phytoliths as a tool to reconstruct paleoenvironments. Grass bulliform cells may be silicified to large size parallelepipedal or cuneiform shaped phytoliths, which were often regarded as of no taxonomic value. However, studies in eastern Asia had identified several forms of grass bulliform phytoliths, including rice bulliform phytolith, a phytolith type frequently used to track the history of rice domestication. Identification with a higher level of taxonomic resolution is possible, yet a systematic investigation on morphology of Poaceae bulliform phytoliths is lacking. We aimed at providing a morphological description of bulliform phytoliths of Poaceae from Taiwan based on morphometric measurements in anatomical aspect. The results are important references for paleo-ecological studies. Result: The morphology of grass bulliform phytoliths is usually consistent within a subfamily; the end profile is relatively rectangular in Panicoideae and Micrairoideae, whereas cuneiform to nearly circular in Oryzoideae, Bambusoideae, Arundinoideae, and Chloridoideae. Bulliform phytoliths were seldom observed in Pooideae. Certain morphotypes are limited to plants growing in specific environments. For example, large, thin, and pointed bulliform phytoliths are associated with wet habitat; Chloridoideae types are mostly from C4 plants occupying open arid places. Conclusion: Grass bulliform phytoliths can be identified at least to the subfamily level, and several forms were distinguished within large subfamilies. Previously un-reported silicified cell types, i.e., arm cells and fusoids, and two special trichome phytolith types associated with bulliform phytoliths, were described. Morphometric methods were great tools for delimiting morphotypes; with refined morphological classification the association between forms and habit/ habitats was revealed. The knowledge provides new ways to interpret phytolith assemblage data, and it is especially useful when the sediments are enriched in large blocky phytoliths.

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Section: Grass Bulliform Phytoliths Are Shaped Up By the Surrounding mentioning

confidence: 81%

Silicified bulliform cells of Poaceae: morphological characteristics that distinguish subfamilies

Chen

Tsang

2020

Bot Stud

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“…Soils were sampled from surface to parent material, at 20 cm intervals per sample layer, to maintain a fine vertical resolution of the extracted charcoal assemblages. In the laboratory, the mineral soils were suspended in 10% potassium hydroxide (KOH) solution for at least 24 h in order to disperse soil aggregates (Inoue et al 2016). The soils were wet-sieved using superimposed sieves of 5 mm and 2 mm.…”

Section: Soil Sampling and Charcoal Extractionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Frégeau et al (2015) used a negative exponential function to evaluate charcoal decay, but his estimation was based on the assumption that the numbers of charcoal fragments originating from fires were invariant over every 200-year period. This assumption is likely wrong, because charcoal abundance is subject to changes due to fire intensity and frequency (Tovar et al 2014, Inoue et al 2016, which can differ with climatic conditions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Late Holocene fire history and charcoal decay in subtropical dry forests of Puerto Rico

et al. 2019

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“…; Inoue et al . ). However, this approach only traces changes in phytolith assemblages, while soil phytolith assemblages often exhibit some degree of bias compared with the actual above‐ground vegetation (Hyland et al .…”

mentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Two basic approaches have been used for palaeoenvironmental reconstruction using phytoliths. A general approach is to establish phytolith zones within a stratigraphical profile based on significant changes in phytolith proportions (Blinnikov et al 2002;Inoue et al 2016). However, this approach only traces changes in phytolith assemblages, while soil phytolith assemblages often exhibit some degree of bias compared with the actual above-ground vegetation (Hyland et al 2013).…”

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confidence: 99%

Phytolith reference study for identifying vegetation changes in the forest−grassland region of northeast China

Gao

Jie

Wang

et al. 2017

Boreas

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To provide a basis for tracing changes in vegetation and tree cover density, we studied the phytoliths of 129 common temperate plant species, and extracted the phytoliths from 75 surface soil samples from sites in grassland, forest−grassland ecotone and forest habitats in northeast China. From the analysis of shapes and morphological parameters of the plant samples, we developed a reference data set of herbaceous and woody phytoliths, and subsequently identified 21 herbaceous and 13 woody phytolith types in the surface soil samples. To test the reliability of soil phytolith analysis for distinguishing forest, grassland and the forest−grassland ecotone, we used principal components analysis (PCA) and discriminant analysis (DA) to summarize the soil phytolith assemblage characteristics of the different ecosystems. The results show that the grassland and forest samples are characterized by abundant herbaceous and woody phytoliths, respectively; and that forest−grassland ecotone habitats are characterized by low abundances of blocky polyhedral, multifaceted epidermal and sclereid phytoliths. In general, the surface soil phytolith assemblages can reliably differentiate samples from forest, grassland and the forest−grassland ecotone, with up to 92% of the samples classified correctly. We also tested the reliability of phytolith indices (W/G (1), W/G (2), W/G (3)) for discriminating different vegetation types in our study area, and found that W/G (2) was the most reliable index and corresponded well with the species inventory data. The W/G values for grassland ranged from 0 to 0.3, from 0.3 to 0.6 for the forest−grassland ecotone, and exceeded 0.6 for forest. We conclude that our study provides reliable analogues for phytolith assemblages from palaeoecological contexts, which can be used to reconstruct shifts in forest−grassland ecotones and vegetation succession in temperate areas.

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The relationship between past vegetation type and fire frequency in western Japan inferred from phytolith and charcoal records in cumulative soils

Cited by 21 publications

References 19 publications

Silicified bulliform cells of Poaceae: morphological characteristics that distinguish subfamilies

Silicified bulliform cells of Poaceae: morphological characteristics that distinguish subfamilies

Late Holocene fire history and charcoal decay in subtropical dry forests of Puerto Rico

Phytolith reference study for identifying vegetation changes in the forest−grassland region of northeast China

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