Distribution and vegetation reconstruction of the deserts of northern China during the mid‐Holocene

Qin, Li; Wu, Haibin; Guo, Zhengtang; Yu, Yanyan; Ge, Junyi; Wu, Jiang; Zhao, Da; Sun, Anyang

doi:10.1002/2014gl059952

Cited by 18 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…Therefore, the long- term decreasing trend in precipitation was not because of a gradual change, but instead to a multiyear reduction in precipitation from 1999 to 2011. This phenomenon suggested that the degradation in vegetation may be because of short-term drought, but not a long-term climate change, as reported by Li et al (2014), who showed that the Horqin sand was not a desertification region in the mid-Holocene (approximately 6000 years ago) because more moisture was present during that time than at the present day. In particular, we observed that the precipitation decreased considerably in 1999, but the NDVI max reached its highest value in the same year (Figure 6(a-b)).…”

Section: Spatial Patterns Of the Trends In Ndvi Max Precipitation Asupporting

confidence: 58%

Attribution of the vegetation trends in a typical desertified watershed of northeast China over the past three decades

et al. 2016

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Desertification is a serious environmental problem in north China that should be urgently addressed and prevented. Identifying the causes of vegetation trends that are closely related to desertification is prerequisite for a better control of desertification processes. In this study, the Xiliao River basin, a typical desertified watershed in northeast China, was selected as a case study. To partition the vegetation trends into climate-induced and human-induced trends, a linear regression model, piecewise regression model and a binary nonlinear regression analysis were employed, based on the long-term remote measures of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and climate data. The results showed that the spatial pattern of the vegetation trends in the basin was highly heterogonous, although the climatic factors varied similarly. In the north, where natural vegetation dominates, the vegetation exhibited significant browning (À0.0015 year À1 ), and a significant changing point was observed in 2000. In the south, where cropland dominates, the vegetation exhibited significant greening (0.002 year À1 ). Approximately 82.7% of the area with a decreasing NDVI was attributed to climate variability. The main reason for the vegetation degradation was because of a multiyear reduction in precipitation from 1999 to 2011 rather than from an increase in the grazing size. Approximately 67.0% of the area with an increasing NDVI could be attributed to irrigation, which overexploited a large amount of water resources, even though significantly increasing air temperatures can promote vegetation greenness. Our findings have important management implications for grazing and agriculture in the context of controlling desertification and sustaining environment.

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Section: Spatial Patterns Of the Trends In Ndvi Max Precipitation Asupporting

confidence: 58%

Attribution of the vegetation trends in a typical desertified watershed of northeast China over the past three decades

et al. 2016

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“…In the last decades, many studies have been conducted in China to reconstruct past vegetation at a broad regional scale using multiple fossil pollen records and applying the biomization procedure (Li et al, 2014;Li, 2016, and literature cited therein). A huge area of northern China is dryland, comprising about one third of the Chinese landmass, and includes both arid and semi-arid regions.…”

Section: Holocene Vegetation and Climate Histories Of The Mongol-chinmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In China's deserts, extensive lakes occurred during the late Pleistocene, and during the LGM steppe and desert vegetation extended to the modern coast of eastern China (Yang et al, 2011). In the first half of the Holocene, strengthened East Asian summer monsoons led to an increase in moisture in the entire dryland belt of northern China, and the mid-Holocene was warmer than today (Yang et al, 2011;Li et al, 2014). The deserts in northern China were greatly reduced and retreated northwestward.…”

Section: Holocene Vegetation and Climate Histories Of The Mongol-chinmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Biome reconstructions for the mid-Holocene revealed steppe as dominating vegetation type in the semi-arid regions east of the Helan Mountains and sites with forest and forest-steppe in the southern part of the east sandy land. West of the Helan Mountains, most of the regions were dominated by desert vegetation as today, but steppe vegetation is also recorded outside the deserts (Li et al, 2014).…”

Section: Holocene Vegetation and Climate Histories Of The Mongol-chinmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Eurasian steppe belt: Status quo, origin and evolutionary history

2019

Turczaninowia

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We present a comprehensive review of the characteristics and structure of the Eurasian steppe and of its evolutionary history in space and time. During the last decades, tremendous advances in research methods in earth and palaeontological sciences have greatly increased knowledge on palaeoclimates and palaeoenvironments of the Cenozoic era. We discuss well-known facts against the background of the recent progress made in these fields and others related to our topics, and address open questions. In Part I (Status quo), we deal with steppe classification systems, human impact and present state of the Eurasian steppe. Here, we concentrate on prehistoric times when the first human cultures emerged, and on the last 100 to 200 years when drastic changes occurred and in many regions steppe nearly completely disappeared. In Part II (Origin and evolutionary history of the Eurasian steppe) we attend to the origin and evolution of grasses and grassland in general, and to the evolution and climate/landscape history of the Eurasian steppe belt in particular. Uplift of the Himalayan-Tibet Plateau, changes in land-sea distribution and global climate trends have been invoked as driving forces behind Cenozoic paleoclimate changes, but there is little consensus which one is the most important driver. We finally identify gaps/challenges in our knowledge about the evolutionary history of the Eurasian steppe and discuss research directions, which might help to unravel the florogenetic and steppe habitat dynamics from the beginning of steppe formation to the present time.

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“…1), Yulin (38°20′N, 109°44′E; Fig. 1), and Xunyi (35°02′N, 108°13′E) sections in the central Chinese Loess Plateau (Lu et al, 2013); by a synthesis of multiple dating and stratigraphic identification results from the Chinese Loess Plateau and the four major sandy lands (the Mu Us, Otindag, Horqin and Hulun Buir sandy lands) located on the modern monsoonal margins ; and by desert distribution and vegetation cover reconstructions in northern China (Li et al, 2014). All of these results demonstrate that the basic Holocene paleo-humidity history in northern China consists of, as represented by the Gonghai record (Fig.…”

Section: Evolution Of Humidity In the Easm Regionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigating the long-term palaeoclimatic controls on the δD and δ18O of precipitation during the Holocene in the Indian and East Asian monsoonal regions

Rao

Zhang

et al. 2016

Earth-Science Reviews

113

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This paper aims to achieve an improved understanding of the long-term change trends of precipitation δD and δ 18 O values (δD p and δ 18 O p ) in the Asian monsoonal region and their relationship with the corresponding humidity trends during the Holocene. To do this we first review the observed modern spatial pattern of summer precipitation distribution in the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) region under different EASM intensities, and the relationship between modern observed δ 18 O p values and corresponding precipitation amounts on monthly and inter-annual timescales in the EASM and Indian summer monsoon (ISM) regions. Second, we compare Holocene lacustrine and marine compound-specific hydrogen isotopic records of n-alkanes/n-alkanoic acid (δD n ), lacustrine authigenic carbonate and cave stalagmite oxygen isotopic records (δ 18 O c and δ 18 O s ) from the Asian monsoonal region, all of which are closely related to δD p and δ 18 O p variations. The results demonstrate that in both the ISM and EASM regions, all of these isotopic records exhibit roughly similar long-term characteristics, i.e. they were all more negative during the early-Holocene and early mid-Holocene (ca. 11-6 ka B.P.; B.P. means before present, present = 1950 AD), and then became more positive towards the late-Holocene. Third, we compare representative paleo-humidity records from the Asian monsoonal region; the results confirm that, in the ISM region, a humid interval occurred in the early-Holocene and early mid-Holocene (ca. 11-6 ka B.P.) and subsequently the climate became more arid towards the late-Holocene. This indicates an enhanced ISM during the early-Holocene and early mid-Holocene (ca. 11-6 ka B.P.), and an ISM of decreasing intensity towards the late-Holocene. On a Holocene orbital scale, both δ 18 O p and δD p appear to be controlled by an "amount effect" in the ISM region, consistent with the region's inter-annual modern δ 18 O p data. This evidence indicates that both δ 18 O p and δD p paleo-records are significantly related to paleo-humidity in the ISM region. In contrast, Holocene humidity variations in the EASM region exhibit clear spatial differences: a humid mid-Holocene interval (ca. 8-3 ka B.P.) occurred in southern and northern China, but an arid interval from ca. 7-3 ka B.P. occurred in central China, in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. Based on precipitation distribution patterns under different EASM intensities in the EASM region over the past few decades, we conclude that EASM intensity was enhanced during the mid-Holocene (ca. 8-3 ka B.P.). Relative to the ISM intensity, the response of EASM intensity to summer insolation was relatively slow. In the EASM region the relationship between climate and δ 18 O p and δD p is more complex, consistent with analyses of regional inter-annual modern δ 18 O p data. This evidence demonstrates that both δ 18 O p and δD p paleo-records cannot be used directly as paleo-humidity (i.e. precipitation amount or EASM intensity) indicators in the EASM region. Further comparison and ...

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Distribution and vegetation reconstruction of the deserts of northern China during the mid‐Holocene

Cited by 18 publications

References 42 publications

Attribution of the vegetation trends in a typical desertified watershed of northeast China over the past three decades

Attribution of the vegetation trends in a typical desertified watershed of northeast China over the past three decades

The Eurasian steppe belt: Status quo, origin and evolutionary history

Investigating the long-term palaeoclimatic controls on the δD and δ18O of precipitation during the Holocene in the Indian and East Asian monsoonal regions

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