Pollen analysis of middle to late Holocene records shows little evidence for grazing disturbance to alpine grassland on the Tibetan Plateau until modern times

Understanding human impact on the vegetation of the Tibetan Plateau through the Holocene is important for developing strategies for sustainable ecosystem management in the region. In this paper, 53 pairs of surface-soil samples from inside and outside livestock enclosures were obtained from across the Tibetan Plateau to investigate the differences in pollen assemblages between grazed and ungrazed sites. This modern dataset was then applied to palynological records from four lakes in the northeast Tibetan Plateau region to investigate middle to late Holocene grazing history. Results show that modern grazing activities have a limited impact on the vegetation, although grazing activity leads to an increase in the pollen proportion of Cyperaceae, Artemisia, Ranunculaceae, Brassicaceae, Taraxacum-type, Fabaceae, and Saxifrageceae while representatives of Poaceae, Chenopodiaceae, and Aster-type pollen decrease. Application of these grazing indicators to the pollen spectra obtained from the four lake sites, together with other proxies, reveals that grazing activity only commenced during the last few hundred years in the northeast marginal areas of the Tibetan Plateau at c. 3000 m a.s.l, while there is no grazing signal in pollen records from above 4000 m a.s.l. Our study emphasises the importance of using multi-proxy methods in estimating signals of past human activity. •Pollen assemblage should be insensitive to grazing activities on the Tibetan Plateau.•Human impacts on vegetation at ∼3400 m a.s.l are limited to within a few centuries.•No significant pollen signal of grazing is revealed for the high-elevation areas.