Seeing the wood for the trees: active human-environmental interactions in arid northwestern China

doi:10.5194/essd-16-2483-2024

IVPP-IR

	Seeing the wood for the trees: active human-environmental interactions in arid northwestern China
	Shen, Hui 1,2; Spengler, Robert N.3,4; Zhou, Xinying1,2 ; Betts, Alison 5; Jia, Peter Weiming 5; Zhao, Keliang1,2 ; Li, Xiaoqiang1,2
	2024-05-24
发表期刊	EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE DATA
ISSN	1866-3508
卷号	16 期号:5 页码:2483-2499
通讯作者	Li, Xiaoqiang(lixiaoqiang@ivpp.ac.cn)
摘要	Due largely to demographic growth, agricultural populations during the Holocene became increasingly more impactful ecosystem engineers. Multidisciplinary research has revealed a deep history of human-environmental dynamics; however, these pre-modern anthropogenic ecosystem transformations and cultural adaptions are still poorly understood. Here, we synthesis anthracological data to explore the complex array of human-environmental interactions in the regions of the prehistoric Silk Road. Our results suggest that these ancient humans were not passively impacted by environmental change; rather, they culturally adapted to, and in turn altered, arid ecosystems. Underpinned by the establishment of complex agricultural systems on the western Loess Plateau, people may have started to manage chestnut trees, likely through conservation of economically significant species, as early as 4600 BP. Since ca. 3500 BP, with the appearance of high-yielding wheat and barley farming in Xinjiang and the Hexi Corridor, people appear to have been cultivating Prunus and Morus trees. We also argue that people were transporting preferred coniferous woods over long distances to meet the need for fuel and timber. After 2500 BP, people in our study area were making conscious selections between wood types for craft production and were also clearly cultivating a wide range of long-generation perennials, showing a remarkable traditional knowledge tied into the arid environment. At the same time, the data suggest that there was significant deforestation throughout the chronology of occupation, including a rapid decline of slow-growing spruce forests and riparian woodlands across northwestern China. The wood charcoal dataset is publicly available at 10.5281/zenodo.8158277 (Shen et al., 2023).
DOI	10.5194/essd-16-2483-2024
关键词[WOS]	CAL YR BP ; WESTERN LOESS PLATEAU ; HEXI CORRIDOR ; NW CHINA ; CLIMATE-CHANGE ; YANGHAI TOMBS ; PALYNOLOGICAL EVIDENCE ; FOOD GLOBALIZATION ; CULTURAL RESPONSE ; PLANT UTILIZATION
收录类别	SCI
语种	英语
资助项目	National Natural Science Foundation of China
项目资助者	National Natural Science Foundation of China
WOS研究方向	Geology ; Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
WOS类目	Geosciences, Multidisciplinary ; Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
WOS记录号	WOS:001231862600001
出版者	COPERNICUS GESELLSCHAFT MBH
引用统计
文献类型	期刊论文
条目标识符	http://119.78.100.205/handle/311034/23692
专题	中国科学院古脊椎动物与古人类研究所
通讯作者	Li, Xiaoqiang
作者单位	1.Chinese Acad Sci, Key Lab Vertebrate Evolut & Human Origins, Inst Vertebrate Paleontol & Paleoanthropol, Beijing 100044, Peoples R China 2.Univ Chinese Acad Sci, Coll Earth & Planetary Sci, Beijing 100049, Peoples R China 3.Max Planck Inst Geoanthropol, Domesticat & Anthropogen Evolut Res Grp, Jena, Germany 4.Max Planck Inst Geoanthropol, Dept Archaeol, D-07745 Jena, Germany 5.Univ Sydney, Dept Archaeol, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Shen, Hui,Spengler, Robert N.,Zhou, Xinying,et al. Seeing the wood for the trees: active human-environmental interactions in arid northwestern China[J]. EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE DATA,2024,16(5):2483-2499.
APA	Shen, Hui.,Spengler, Robert N..,Zhou, Xinying.,Betts, Alison.,Jia, Peter Weiming.,...&Li, Xiaoqiang.(2024).Seeing the wood for the trees: active human-environmental interactions in arid northwestern China.EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE DATA,16(5),2483-2499.
MLA	Shen, Hui,et al."Seeing the wood for the trees: active human-environmental interactions in arid northwestern China".EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE DATA 16.5(2024):2483-2499.