Vegetation responses to late Quaternary climate change in a biodiversity hotspot, the Three Parallel Rivers region in southwestern China

The late-Quaternary vegetation history of a biodiversity hotspot—the Three Parallel Rivers region (TPRR)—was palynologically studied based on a series of fluvial terrace sediments along the upper Lancang valley, southwestern China. A parallel study on the modern pollen rains in the region shows that the contemporary distribution of species along elevational gradients are distinguished by characteristic pollen assemblages, providing good analogs...