Studies on Holocene vegetation-, fire-, climate- and human history - comparing multi-site evidence from the forest-steppe biomes in Mongolian Altai, Tosontsengel and Orkhon Valley

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Hermann Behling
• Subject Area: Ecology and Biodiversity of Plants and Ecosystems
• Term: since 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 315925307

Besides our studies in the Altai Mountains, new environmental archives from two additional little studied regions (Tosontsengel, Orkhon Valley) in the forest-steppe-biome of Mongolia will be studied in multi-proxy (pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs, charcoal, diatoms, sediments) and multi-site approaches, radiocarbon dated and analysed by using various multivariate methods. These studies and comparisons will enhance the knowledge of the variability and dynamics of the Western and Central Mongolian forest-steppe-ecosystems. It will be investigated how climate and how strong different prehistoric and historic populations (e.g. Scythians, Turks, Mongols) changed the forest-steppe-biome during the Holocene. Our new results from the Altai Mountains demonstrate that humans had a strong impact on vegetation during the last 1000 years, which has not very well been considered in other studies in Mongolia. In this extension we will study the extent of anthropogenic impacts in a little (Tosontsengel, North-Central Mongolia) and a strongly (Orkhon Valley, Central Mongolia) impacted region. It is of further interest, if livestock animals have a different influence on the vegetation and its biodiversity. These studies will be a contribution to the protection and management of the forest-steppe-biome.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants