scholarly journals HUMAN RESPONSES TO CLIMATE CHANGE IN THE LATE PREHISTORIC WESTERN LOESS PLATEAU, NORTHWEST CHINA

Radiocarbon ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 62 (5) ◽  
pp. 1193-1207
Author(s):  
Tingting Chen ◽  
Menghan Qiu ◽  
Ruiliang Liu ◽  
Haiming Li ◽  
Hongwei Hou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Loess Plateau ◽  
Phase 1 ◽  
Northwest China ◽  
Late Prehistoric ◽  
Plant Seeds ◽  
Cold Tolerant ◽  
Majiayao Culture ◽  
Paleoclimate Records ◽  
Western Loess Plateau

ABSTRACTIn order to assess late prehistoric human responses to climate change in the Western Loess Plateau (WLP), we investigated 13,567 charred plant seeds and 19 radiocarbon (14C) dates obtained from 41 late prehistoric sites in the upper Wei River valley. Based on these new dating results as well as their cultural attributes, these sites could be confidently divided into four chronological phases (Phase 1: Late Yangshao and Majiayao culture; Phase 2: Qijia culture; Phases 3 and 4: Siwa culture) but a significant gap was identified at ca. 3600–3000 cal yr BP in this region. Comparison of this interval to high-resolution paleoclimate records from Tianchi Lake suggests it could be attributed to the dramatic drop in temperature at this time. Accordingly, archaeobotanical evidence with a refined chronology shows the adoption of cold-tolerant subsistence cereal grains such as barley on the NETP (Northeast Tibetan Plateau). Drawing from various lines of knowledge (chronology, palaeoclimate, archaeobotany, and archaeology), it is reasonable to conclude that, even when confronting a similar magnitude of climate change, local human societies could vary tremendously. Different subsistence strategies were brought in by the trans-Eurasia culture exchange of prehistoric times.

Climate change and cultural response around 4000 cal yr B.P. in the western part of Chinese Loess Plateau

2005 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
pp. 347-352 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheng-Bang An ◽  
Lingyu Tang ◽  
Loukas Barton ◽  
Fa-Hu Chen
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
Loess Plateau ◽  
Chinese Loess Plateau ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Chinese Loess ◽  
Human Demography ◽  
Climatic Transition ◽  
Western Loess Plateau ◽  
Sudden Reduction

New data suggest that dramatic environmental change in the Western Loess Plateau of China corresponded with substantial changes in human demography ca. 4000 cal yr B.P. These data demonstrate that a rapid climatic transition from wet to dry led to an ecologically devastated period between 4090 and 3600 cal yr B.P. The sudden reduction in the number of archaeological sites during this period, namely a reduction in the total number of sites and a contraction of the areal distribution of sites, points to declining agricultural productivity associated with widespread aridification beginning at 4000 cal yr B.P.

scholarly journals Rock-magnetic proxies of climate change in the loess-palaeosol sequences of the western Loess Plateau of China

1995 ◽  
Vol 123 (1) ◽  
pp. 232-244 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher P. Hunt ◽  
Subir K. Banerjee ◽  
Jiamao Han ◽  
Peter A. Solheid ◽  
Eric Oches ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Loess Plateau ◽  
Magnetic Proxies ◽  
Western Loess Plateau

scholarly journals Simulating the Effect of Climate Change on Vegetation Zone Distribution on the Loess Plateau, Northwest China

Forests ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (12) ◽  
pp. 2092-2108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guoqing Li ◽  
Zhongming Wen ◽  
Ke Guo ◽  
Sheng Du
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Loess Plateau ◽  
Northwest China ◽  
The Loess Plateau ◽  
Vegetation Zone

Effects of Lucerne Removal Time on Soil Water and Productivity in a Lucerne- Wheat Rotation on the Western Loess Plateau

2011 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 686-693 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ling-Ling LI ◽  
Gao-Bao HUANG ◽  
Ren-Zhi ZHANG ◽  
Li-Qun CAI ◽  
Zhu-Zhu LUO ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Soil Water ◽  
Loess Plateau ◽  
Removal Time ◽  
Western Loess Plateau

Twelfth Century AD

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lonnie G. Thompson ◽  
Alan L. Kolata
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Sediment Cores ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Lake Titicaca ◽  
Independent Evidence ◽  
Tropical Regions ◽  
Ice Cap ◽  
Paleoclimate Records ◽  
Past Climate Change

Climate is a fundamental and independent variable of human existence. Given that 50 percent of the Earth’s surface and much of its population exist between 30oN and 30oS, paleoenvironmental research in the Earth’s tropical regions is vital to our understanding of the world’s current and past climate change. Most of the solar energy that drives the climate system is absorbed in these regions. Paleoclimate records reveal that tropical processes, such as variations in the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), have affected the climate over much of the planet. Climatic variations, particularly in precipitation and temperature, play a critical role in the adaptations of agrarian cultures located in zones of environmental sensitivity, such as those of the coastal deserts, highlands, and altiplano of the Andean region. Paleoclimate records from the Quelccaya ice cap (5670 masl) in highland Peru that extend back ~1800 years show good correlation between precipitation and the rise and fall of pre-Hispanic civilizations in western Peru and Bolivia. Sediment cores extracted from Lake Titicaca provide independent evidence of this correspondence with particular reference to the history of the pre-Hispanic Tiwanaku state centered in the Andean altiplano. Here we explore, in particular, the impacts of climate change on the development and ultimate dissolution of this altiplano state.

scholarly journals Contributions of Vegetation Greening and Climate Change to Evapotranspiration Trend after Large-Scale Vegetation Restoration on the Loess Plateau, China

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 1755
Author(s):  
Shuo Wang ◽  
Chenfeng Cui ◽  
Qin Dai
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Loess Plateau ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Vegetation Index ◽  
Normalized Difference Vegetation Index ◽  
Potential Evapotranspiration ◽  
Development Trend ◽  
Future Trend ◽  
Natural Ecosystem ◽  
The Loess Plateau

Since the early 2000s, the vegetation cover of the Loess Plateau (LP) has increased significantly, which has been fully recorded. However, the effects on relevant eco-hydrological processes are still unclear. Here, we made an investigation on the changes of actual evapotranspiration (ETa) during 2000–2018 and connected them with vegetation greening and climate change in the LP, based on the remote sensing data with correlation and attribution analysis. Results identified that the average annual ETa on the LP exhibited an obvious increasing trend with the value of 9.11 mm yr−1, and the annual ETa trend was dominated by the changes of ETa in the third quarter (July, August, and September). The future trend of ETa was predicted by the Hurst exponent. Partial correlation analysis indicated that annual ETa variations in 87.8% regions of the LP were controlled by vegetation greening. Multiple regression analysis suggested that the relative contributions of potential evapotranspiration (ETp), precipitation, and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), to the trend of ETa were 5.7%, −26.3%, and 61.4%, separately. Vegetation greening has a close relationship with the Grain for Green (GFG) project and acts as an essential driver for the long-term development trend of water consumption on the LP. In this research, the potential conflicts of water demanding between the natural ecosystem and social-economic system in the LP were highlighted, which were caused by the fast vegetation expansion.

scholarly journals Quantifying the Responses of Evapotranspiration and Its Components to Vegetation Restoration and Climate Change on the Loess Plateau of China

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 2358
Author(s):  
Linjing Qiu ◽  
Yiping Wu ◽  
Zhaoyang Shi ◽  
Yuting Chen ◽  
Fubo Zhao
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Loess Plateau ◽  
Dominant Role ◽  
Vegetation Restoration ◽  
Vegetation Coverage ◽  
Ecological Planning ◽  
The Loess Plateau ◽  
Canopy Interception ◽  
Community Land Model ◽  
Spatiotemporal Trends

Quantitatively identifying the influences of vegetation restoration (VR) on water resources is crucial to ecological planning. Although vegetation coverage has improved on the Loess Plateau (LP) of China since the implementation of VR policy, the way vegetation dynamics influences regional evapotranspiration (ET) remains controversial. In this study, we first investigate long-term spatiotemporal trends of total ET (TET) components, including ground evaporation (GE) and canopy ET (CET, sum of canopy interception and canopy transpiration) based on the GLEAM-ET dataset. The ET changes are attributed to VR on the LP from 2000 to 2015 and these results are quantitatively evaluated here using the Community Land Model (CLM). Finally, the relative contributions of VR and climate change to ET are identified by combining climate scenarios and VR scenarios. The results show that the positive effect of VR on CET is offset by the negative effect of VR on GE, which results in a weak variation in TET at an annual scale and an increased TET is only shown in summer. Regardless of the representative concentration pathway (RCP4.5 or RCP8.5), differences resulted from the responses of TET to different vegetation conditions ranging from −3.7 to −1.2 mm, while climate change from RCP4.5 to RCP8.5 caused an increase in TET ranging from 0.1 to 65.3 mm. These findings imply that climate change might play a dominant role in ET variability on the LP, and this work emphasizes the importance of comprehensively considering the interactions among climate factors to assess the relative contributions of VR and climate change to ET.

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