PHYTOLITH ANALYSIS: MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PEATLAND PLANT SPECIES IN CHANGBAI MOUNTAINS
长白山泥炭湿地主要植物植硅体形态特征研究

Phytolith analysis is an important method in the reconstruction of paleoenvironment.It is also an useful tool in the fields of paleoecology,environmental archaeology,and plant taxonomy.The research on applying phytolith analysis in peatland to reconstruct paleobotany and paleoenvirnment depends on the study on modern plant phytoliths.In this paper,phytoliths from 25 genera,31 species from peatlands aroud Changbai Mountains were analyzed.The paper focused on the morphological differences of phytoliths,the phytolith morpho-types could be classified into 15 categories,they were silicified stomata,elongate,fan-shaped,plate-shaped,silicious tuber,point-shaped,tooth-shaped,and hat-shaped,and a small amount of vessel,dumbell,multilateral-hat-shaped,saddle-shaped,crosstie-shaped,trichoid-shaped.Peatland plant species from Gramineae,Equisetaceae,Violaceae,and Rubiaceae were found of large amount of phytoliths.A special type of point-shaped phytolith was found in Solidago virgaurea,a new type of phytolith was found in the Beckmannia syzigachne and named as crossite-shaped,this could be a useful supplementary to Gramineae phytoliths classifications.The cluster analysis for width of silicified stomata found that the width of silicified stomata is an humidity indicator,the wider the silicified stomata,the wetter the environment.More quantitive researches on the size of silicified stomata could be helpful for the reconstruction of paleoenvironment and concentrations of carbon dioxide,and the study of morphological characteristics of peatland plant phytoliths could help the reconstruction of the paleoenvironment of peatland.PCA(Principal Component Analysis)for main phytolith types of plants in the peatland found that the combination of elongate,dumbbell,silicious tuber and point-shaped represented wet and cold climate.There was little differences found among the phytoliths assemblages from five peatlands,it was considered as the elevation differences counteracted the latitude differences.