{"title":"Agriculture and Holocene deforestation in eastern China","authors":"John Dodson , Xiaoqiang Li , Menglin Song","doi":"10.1016/j.quaint.2024.03.008","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Humans have had profound and environmentally changing impacts on land cover, and China has many examples of this. It has been recognised for some time that middle to late Holocene forests in China have undergone changes that are best described as due to human impacts. Hence the Holocene has seen sometimes gradual and sometimes abrupt changes from forest dynamics driven by natural forces to those dominated by human impacts. This leads to a conclusion that it is often difficult to disentangle natural and anthropogenic controls on forest composition. In many cases records show minor changes in the early Holocene giving way to intense changes as agriculture expanded. The two earliest centres of extensive forest changes from 6 to 5 kyr BP were in the middle to lower Yellow and lower Yangtze valleys, where millet and rice agriculture developed. Major forest clearing was later in other areas, including the Pearl River valley, Northeast China and Yunnan. Forest clearing for agriculture was widespread in eastern China by 2 kyr BP. Where data is available it seems that initial clearing took place in valleys adjacent to rivers, presumably because these were the preferred living places for early farmers. Then gradually spread to nearby slopes. New approaches and technologies were needed to achieve this. The records show that north east China, north of the Liao River, and the mountains of central China were amongst the last places to record forest clearing, in some cases just within the last few hundred years, or not at all.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":49644,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary International","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9000,"publicationDate":"2024-04-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Quaternary International","FirstCategoryId":"89","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1040618224001125","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"GEOGRAPHY, PHYSICAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Humans have had profound and environmentally changing impacts on land cover, and China has many examples of this. It has been recognised for some time that middle to late Holocene forests in China have undergone changes that are best described as due to human impacts. Hence the Holocene has seen sometimes gradual and sometimes abrupt changes from forest dynamics driven by natural forces to those dominated by human impacts. This leads to a conclusion that it is often difficult to disentangle natural and anthropogenic controls on forest composition. In many cases records show minor changes in the early Holocene giving way to intense changes as agriculture expanded. The two earliest centres of extensive forest changes from 6 to 5 kyr BP were in the middle to lower Yellow and lower Yangtze valleys, where millet and rice agriculture developed. Major forest clearing was later in other areas, including the Pearl River valley, Northeast China and Yunnan. Forest clearing for agriculture was widespread in eastern China by 2 kyr BP. Where data is available it seems that initial clearing took place in valleys adjacent to rivers, presumably because these were the preferred living places for early farmers. Then gradually spread to nearby slopes. New approaches and technologies were needed to achieve this. The records show that north east China, north of the Liao River, and the mountains of central China were amongst the last places to record forest clearing, in some cases just within the last few hundred years, or not at all.
期刊介绍:
Quaternary International is the official journal of the International Union for Quaternary Research. The objectives are to publish a high quality scientific journal under the auspices of the premier Quaternary association that reflects the interdisciplinary nature of INQUA and records recent advances in Quaternary science that appeal to a wide audience.
This series will encompass all the full spectrum of the physical and natural sciences that are commonly employed in solving Quaternary problems. The policy is to publish peer refereed collected research papers from symposia, workshops and meetings sponsored by INQUA. In addition, other organizations may request publication of their collected works pertaining to the Quaternary.