干旱区生态环境知识资源中心(Arid): Historical human activities accelerated climate-driven desertification in China's Mu Us Desert

Arid

DOI	10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.134771
	Historical human activities accelerated climate-driven desertification in China's Mu Us Desert
	Zhang, Di; Deng, Hui
通讯作者	Zhang, Di ; Deng, Hui
来源期刊	SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
ISSN	0048-9697
EISSN	1879-1026
出版年	2020
卷号	708
英文摘要	China's Mu Us Desert, located in an energy-rich strategic base of the northwestern Loess Plateau, has acted as a crucial agro-pastoral transition zone for thousands of years. However, the area experienced notable climate and environmental change from 221 BCE to CE 907 (1128 years), which may have profoundly affected its landscape evolution up to modern times. To explore this process and associated driving mechanisms, we conducted a comprehensive study based on a dataset of 882 human archaeological sites (HASs), historical documents, and related environmental data of the Mu Us Desert and its surrounding area (MUDISA). We found that the MUDISA experienced large-scale immigration and an agricultural boom (790 HASs) during the Qin and Han dynasties (221 BCE-CE 220). This coincided with an ecologically favorable environment and may have potentially disturbed the desert's eco-environmental equilibrium. Coinciding with the deteriorating natural conditions, the MUDISA's animal husbandry replaced agriculture as the dominant subsistence economy during the era of disunity (CE 220-581, 33 HASs) and during the Sui and Tang dynasties (CE 581-907, 59 HASs). Although natural and political-economic factors together caused a sharp decline in number and scattering for HASs in the desert, people and livestock were widely distributed and maintained a high population level. This situation, coupled with the dry climate and fragile geographical environment, may have significantly accelerated the climate-driven desertification process from CE 220 to CE 907. This study highlights the long-term human-nature relationship and its impact on historical desertification in the Mu Us Desert, and may shed new light on historical environmental change in arid and/or semi-arid areas in northwest China and globally. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
英文关键词	Mu Us Desert From 221 BCE to CE 907 Comprehensive study Human activities Human-nature relationship Historical desertification
类型	Article
语种	英语
国家	Peoples R China
收录类别	SCI-E
WOS记录号	WOS:000506214900045
WOS关键词	NORTHERN CHINA ; QUANTITATIVE ASSESSMENT ; RELATIVE ROLES ; DUNE ACTIVITY ; GRAIN-SIZE ; LAND-USE ; RIVER ; EVOLUTION ; MOBILIZATION ; VARIABILITY
WOS类目	Environmental Sciences
WOS研究方向	Environmental Sciences & Ecology
来源机构	北京大学
资源类型	期刊论文
条目标识符	http://119.78.100.177/qdio/handle/2XILL650/315507
作者单位	Peking Univ, Coll Urban & Environm Sci, Beijing 100871, Peoples R China
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Zhang, Di,Deng, Hui. Historical human activities accelerated climate-driven desertification in China's Mu Us Desert[J]. 北京大学,2020,708.
APA	Zhang, Di,&Deng, Hui.(2020).Historical human activities accelerated climate-driven desertification in China's Mu Us Desert.SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT,708.
MLA	Zhang, Di,et al."Historical human activities accelerated climate-driven desertification in China's Mu Us Desert".SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 708(2020).