MODERN POLLEN RAIN IN HAINAN ISLAND, SOUTHERN CHINA: ALTITUDINAL POLLEN DISTRIBUTION IN THE TROPICAL RAIN FOREST
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Abstract:
Modern pollen rain study was carried out on the samples collected from Hainan Island, tropical China along an altitudinal gradient from 0-1860 m (from lowland rainforests or savannas to Ericaceae and highland pine forest). The pollen analysis demonstrates that the variation in pollen taxa has a close relation with altitudinal changes of forest communities. Pollen diversity is high in the areas of lowland rain forests, despite that many pollen spectra from < 700 m altitude show a great influences of human disturbance, such as the high percentages of Casuarina, Acacia, Dicranopteris. Pollen dispersal in the mountain rain forests is characterized by the increase in Fagaceae (Quercus and Castanopsis), then upwards in conifer (particularly Dacrydium pierrei, Pinus, Podocarpm imbricatus) and Altingia obovata, and in Ericaceae. The pollen dispersal pattern indicates the distinctive vegetation distribution along an altitudinal and climatic gradient, although the pollen abundance is not dance is not coequal with the forest cover. The present study provides data for interpretation of fossil pollen records from tropical regions in southeastern China, and helps to understand the altitudinal shift of forest belts during Quaternary.
