Vegetation landscape and paleoenvironment evolution recorded at the late Neolithic Zhumucun site, East China.

The paddy field ecosystem and diversified plant food resources in the middle and late Liangzhu Culture were revealed at the Zhumucun site. Based on pollen and phytolith records, this paper presents local vegetation landscape of the site: (1) evergreen-deciduous broad-leaved forests dominated by Quercus , Castanopsis , and Ulmus distributed on the nearby hills, (2) terrestrial herbs represented by Poaceae plants tend to expand on the plain, (3) aquatic plants such as Typha , Trapa , Myriophyllum and Euryale ferox grew in rivers and lakes, and (4) plants such as Phragmites australis , Echinochloa , Polygonum lapathifolium , Haloragidaceae, Rumex , Cyperus , Cyperaceae, and Polygonaceae were distributed in and around the wetland. Water activities tended to be intense, and the climate was generally warm and humid with short-term anomalously cold or wet fluctuations. This is in line with the characteristics of environmental changes revealed by regional natural accumulations. In this conditions, local rice ecosystem was recorded with diachronic changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]