Based on 1686 records of agriculturalists' migration and 4417 events of social crisis (wars, famines, and epidemics) together with various statistical methods, we constructed a conceptual model that includes both climatic and social factors to explain the long-term dynamics of agriculturalists' migration in historical China over the last two millennia. Also, we framed our research under the paradigm of environmental humanities to help reinterpret the influence of long-term climate change on human migration. Our statistical results quantitatively analyzed and evidenced the reluctance of agriculturalists toward migration as a general feature of history in China. Yet, at the long-term and large spatial scale, climate change can exert indirect effects on agriculturalists' migration by contributing to social crisis, which is a more direct trigger. Based on our statistical results and existing literature, the attitude toward migration of agriculturalists and pastoralists in historical China was compared in a quantitative perspective. Finally, a traditional notion 'Mandate of Heaven' in relation to agriculturalists' migration was revisited. Our findings may have an important implication in comprehending the cultural barriers of human adaption to climate change in Chinese history.

Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating was conducted on the K-feldspar and quartz fractions of a Holocene loess-paleosol sequence in the Yili Basin, in the core area of arid central Asia (ACA). Age overestimation using the post-IR IR (pIR50IR170) signals from feldspar was observed for paleosols, because of poor bleaching prior to deposition. Therefore, a reliable age framework for the studied section was established using OSL dating of coarse-grained quartz, combined with a Bacon age model. A total of 18 OSL ages were obtained from a 2.5-m-loess/paleosol sequence with age range of 17.4–0.4 ka. Magnetic and grain-size proxies were used to reconstruct environmental changes during the studied interval, and the results indicate that paleosol development commenced at ~6 ka in the Yili Basin, which is consistent with previous studies in the Xinjiang region. Dust accumulation rates (DARs) and end-member analysis (EMA) of the grain-size frequency distributions were used to infer variations in the Westerlies during the Holocene, and the results suggest that the Westerlies were the main source of excess moisture in ACA during the studied interval.

The cold and hypoxic environment of the Tibetan Plateau was a major challenge for its prehistoric human occupants. The earliest known hominin occupation (or visitation) of the Tibetan Plateau was at ~200 ka, in the middle Pleistocene, and these hominins must have had survival strategies for this harsh environment. We report the discovery of 5 handprints and 17 footprints on the travertine near the outlet of the Quesang hot spring, a well-documented archeological site with well-studied hominin hand and footprints on the Tibetan Plateau. Based on ichnological analysis and U-Th dating, we found that these intentional and unintentional traces were impressed during the early to middle Holocene. Combined with the 19 previously-dated hand and footprints from around the hot spring, we conclude that this site was attractive to ancient humans who made repeated visits over a long period. The strengthened monsoon in the early and middle Holocene may have promoted the expansion of prehistoric human activity onto the central Tibetan Plateau. The frequent human activities near the Quesang hot spring imply that the widespread hot springs on the Tibetan Plateau provided resources that facilitated human survival in this cold and dry plateau region.