Changing intensity of human activity over the last 2,000 years recorded by the magnetic characteristics of sediments from Xingyun Lake, Yunnan, China

Holocene vegetation history, precipitation changes and Indian Summer Monsoon evolution documented from sediments of Xingyun Lake, south‐west China

“…c, f), possibly indicating strong human impacts on vegetation and the land surface which resulted in significant soil erosion when a local kingdom was established and then expanded [see Wu et al . () for detailed discussion].…”

“…In central Yunnan Province, both Pinus and Alnus are secondary trees and expand because of the destruction of evergreen broadleaved forest (Editorial Board of Yunnan Vegetation in China, ). These conclusions regarding the role of human activity as a major driver of vegetation during this period are consistent with changes in the sedimentary magnetic properties (Wu et al ., ).…”

Holocene East Asian summer monsoon records in northern China and their inconsistency with Chinese stalagmite δ18O records

“…6d; Fleitmann et al, 2003), located in Oman in the western part of the ISM domain, increased slightly during the course of the Holocene and slowly increased around 2000 cal yr BP, indicating that the ISM gradually weakened. the Xingyun Lake record, probably due to significant human impact on the regional vegetation cover Wu et al, 2015). In addition, it is interesting that these records all exhibit a platform of values defining an interval of strong ISM in the early Holocene ( Fig.…”

Linkages between climate, fire and vegetation in southwest China during the last 18.5ka based on a sedimentary record of black carbon and its isotopic composition

“…The coeval rapid increase in sedimentation rate may be the result of intensified human activity associated with the establishment of the Dali Kingdom, which would have caused significant soil erosion. Soil erosion caused by large-scale population growth in Yunnan is also recorded in the sediments of Lake Erhai and Xingyun during the same interval (Dearing et al, 2008;Hillman et al, 2014;Shen et al, 2006;Wu et al, 2014). The increasing human population would have caused increased deforestation, reclamation of wasteland, development of agriculture and stockbreeding in the lake catchment.…”

“…In contrast, fire history reconstructions from southwest China, which is influenced by the Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM), are rare. In southwest China, significant human activity occurred from about 2.2 cal ka BP onwards (Dearing et al, 2008;Hillman et al, 2014;Shen et al, 2006;Wu et al, 2014), although vegetation change in the Lake Erhai catchment may have been caused by human impacts at about 6.4 cal ka BP or even earlier (Dearing et al, 2008;Shen et al, 2006). Therefore, a fire history study in the region would potentially provide a better context for distinguishing the potential impacts of climate from human activity on long-term fire regimes.…”