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 9th IAMAS
Scientific
Assembly
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Understanding desertification: Human agency and Holocene climate change in Jilantai Basin of Western Inner Mongolia, China
Robert Elston, FaHu Chen, David B. Madsen, Changbang An, Dongju Zhang
Although it is generally accepted in China that late Holocene desertification is associated with farming rather than pastoralism, certain forms of pastoralism are very destructive in semi-stable sandy deserts. Grazing camels and goats can together denude semi-stable sandy desert plant communities in a matter of weeks, destabilizing dunes, and sometimes creating irreversible gobi; such impacts are intensified in cold dry intervals. Even before the Bronze Age advent of camel nomadism, pastoralists may have been instrumental in late Holocene degradation of fragile sandy desert environments if herders were restricted to smaller territories with relatively low carrying capacity. If herds grew large during warm moist intervals, attempts to maintain herd size in cold dry intervals could have resulted in vegetation degradation and release of dunes from basin margins. In the Tengger Desert of western Inner Mongolia, paleoenvironmental evidence suggests that Holocene dune encroachment into lake basins is correlated with cold dry climate. If pastoralism accelerated this process, then periods of desertification should begin to accelerate earlier in cold dry intervals of the late Holocene than in the early Holocene, especially after the appearance of camel pastoralism. We are testing this hypothesis with 14C and OSL-dated archaeological, sedimentological and palynological records gathered from Jilatai Basin in the NE Tengger and compared to climate cycles dated in ice cores.
Keywords: DESERTIFICATION, HOLOCENE, CLIMATE, PREHISTORY, PASTORALISM
Robert Elston, Desert Research Institute, Division of Earth and Ecosystem Sciences, Reno, NV 89512, USA, elston@pyramid.net
FaHu Chen, Lanzhou University, Center for Arid Environment and Paleoclimate Research, Lanzhou 730000, China, fhchen@lzu.edu.cn
David B. Madsen, Desert Research Institute, Division of Earth and Ecosystem Sciences, Reno, NV 89512, USA, dmadsen@austin.rr.com
Changbang An, Lanzhou University, Center for Arid Environment and Paleoclimate Research, Lanzhou 730000, China, cban@lzu.edu.cn
Dongju Zhang, Lanzhou University, Center for Arid Environment and Paleoclimate Research, Lanzhou 730000, China, zhangdj04@st.lzu.edu.cn
Session: Climate, Humans and the Environment in Asia
Sub-Theme: Paleohydrology
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