Vegetation and climate change during the mid-late Holocene: A pollen record from the Arxan marshland in the Greater Khingan Mountains

Investigating the timing and features of climate transitions in East Asia during the Holocene, via the sensitive response of ecosystems on the East Asian Summer Monsoon (EASM) boundary, is crucial for understanding the underlying mechanisms that drive these transitions. This study presents high-resolution palynological sequences for the period 6800–900 cal a B.P. from peat cores retrieved from the Arxan region in the Greater Khingan Range, northeast China. The lithological changes in the cores show that peat deposition began at 6430 cal a B.P. Regional vegetation was dominated by forest steppes, with Artemisia prevailing the vegetation landscape. Variations in Artemisia/Chenopodiaceae (A/C) pollen ratios, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) results, and charcoal concentration derived from the pollen data suggest that regional moisture availability increased from 6800 to 4200 cal a B.P., thereafter experiencing a marked decline. These changes in moisture availability causes fluctuations in the water table of the Arxan marshes, resulting in the expansion and reduction of the marshland, as demonstrated by swamp and aquatic palynomorphs, however did not disrupt subsequent peat deposition. In addition to the forcing of low-latitude summer insolation, the climate transition in northeast China around 4200 cal a B.P. aligns with a notable increase in sea ice in the western Okhotsk Sea during the late Holocene, which probably resulted in a reduction of EASM precipitation over the region. Our study offers new insights into the vegetation response observed in montane marshlands on the EASM boundary to climate transitions during the mid-late Holocene period.