Late Pliocene vegetation and palaeo climate of Yangyi and Longling of western Yunnan Province
Xu Jingxian Wang Yufei Du Naiqiu
1Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiangshan, Beijing 100093
2State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi’an 710075, Shanxi
Late Pliocene palynofloras of both Yangyi and Longling are dominated by angiosperms, along with a moderate number of ferns and gymnosperms, and a few algae. Compared with Yangyi playnoflora, Longling palynoflora contains more abundant subtropical elements of angiosperms, more ferns and less gymnosperms. Based on comparison with the vertical zones of modern vegetations, most elements of Longling palynoflora derived from the montane humid evergreen broad-leaved forest at elevation of 1600—2500m, with less contributions of the evergreen coniferous and broad-leaved mixed forest from 2300 to 2900m, whereas most of Yangyi palynoflora derived from the evergreen coniferous and broad-leaved mixed forest at elevation of 2800—3100m, with less contributions of evergreen coniferous forest above 3200m. Both Late Pliocene vegetations reflect a mountain subtropical climate with humidity.
