Pollen assemblages from different agricultural units and their spatial distribution in Anyang area

Pollen analysis is one of the best and possible approaches for the quantitative reconstruction of paleobotany and paleoclimate, and discrimination of human activities. In this paper, we reveal the characteristics of pollen assemblages in different agricultural units and their spatial distribution of major pollen taxa in the Anyang area where the human influences are serious, so as to get more information about climate change and human activities from pollen records. The pollen assemblages of total 122 surface soil samples from different agricultural units (farm lands, vegetable plots, wastelands, cape-lands, woodlands, etc.) indicate that herbaceous pollen dominates the pollen assemblages with an average of 73%, mainly from Poaceae, Artemisia, Chenopodiaceae and Cruciferae; arboreal pollen percentages reach 18%, mainly from Pinus and Ulmus; shrub pollen and fern spores have very low percentages. In general, pollen assemblages are consistent with vegetation composition, though some differences also exist in different agricultural units. In farmlands and vegetable lands, Poaceae pollen has the highest percentages (averaging 27%) compared to other agricultural units with dominant corn or wheat pollen, while in wastelands and woodlands, arboreal and Artemisia pollen percentages have higher values (averaging 20% and 19% respectively). Cruciferae has the highest pollen percentages (70%) in rape-lands. Both pollen assemblages and PCoA can generally identify the vegetable plots, farmlands, woodlands, wastelands, and rape-lands. Pinus and Artemisia pollens mainly appear in the western part of Anyang, which is consistent with the parent plants; Poaceae pollen mainly exist in the eastern part with more farmlands; Chenopodiaceae pollen mainly appear in the urban areas and near major roads where human influences are stronger, Cruciferae pollen can mainly be found in the urban area and in the northwest part of Anyang where more vegetables are planted.