Responses of phytoliths in topsoil samples to temperature variation in temperate region

Modern phytolith research is the premise to accurately reconstruct the regional paleovegetation and paleoclimate. It is thus particularly important to study the spatial distribution characteristics of the phytolith assemblages and the response of the phytolith to environmental factors. In this study, we collected 54 topsoil samples along the isohyet of 600 mm in Northeast China to examine the distribution patterns of phytolith along the gradient of single environmental factor. With this special sampling method, we targeted to reveal the responses of phytolith assemblages in the topsoil to the variation of temperature. The results showed that there were a large number of phytoliths with various morphotypes in the 54 topsoil samples in Northeast China. The phytolith morphotypes were the same, including elongate, lanceolate, blocky, cuneiform, tabular, saddle, rondel, bilobate, trapeziform polylobate, prism, silicified stomata, conduit, papillae, sclereid and carinate. In gene-ral, the contributions of elongate and lanceolate were high; the contributions of short cell phytoliths, blocky, tabular and cuneiform were small relatively; the contributions of the other types of phytoliths were less than 1.0% and appeared sporadically in the topsoil samples. Besides, the phytolith assemblages of the topsoil samples were different among Xiaoxing'an Mountains, Songliao Plain and Liaoxi hills. Combined with the discriminant analysis, the samples from the three regions could be effectively separated based on the phytoliths assemblages, with a total accuracy of 94.4%. Specifi-cally, the average percentage of elongate, lanceolate, prism was the largest in Xiaoxing'an Mountains, and was the smallest in Liaoxi hills; the percentage of saddle, bilobate, papillae was the largest in Liaoxi hills and the smallest in Xiaoxing'an Mountains; the percentage of blocky, tabular, cuneiform was the largest in Songliao Plain. Meanwhile, the percentages of the elongate, lanceolate, prism, saddle, bilobate, papillae, blocky, tabular, cuneiform were significant diffe-rences among the three regions. There were significant negative correlations between the percentages of elongate, lanceolate, prism and the annual average temperature, and positive relationships between the percentages of the blocky, tabular, cuneiform, bilobate, papillae and the annual average temperature. However, the percentage of saddle, rondel and trapeziform polylobate did not change with increasing annual average temperature.