Browsing by Author "Yang, Q"

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    Early agricultural development and environmental effects in the Neolithic Longdong basin (East Gansu)
    (Springer Nature, 2011-03-01) Zhou, XY; Li, XQ; Zhao, KL; Dodson, JR; Sun, N; Yang, Q
    Neolithic agricultural development and environmental effects in the Longdong area were reconstructed using a synthetic approach, investigating pollen, charcoal, and seed remains for two cultural layer sections and five flotation sites. Results show that Neolithic agriculture in the Longdong area had a simple organization and was dominated by the production of common millet, especially in the early and middle Yangshao age. After the late Yangshao age, Neolithic agriculture developed into a more complex structure, dominated by both common and foxtail millet and the cultivation of rice and soybeans. The production of foxtail millet gradually increased through the Neolithic period, reaching its highest point during the Qijia culture. Soybeans were first cultivated during the late Yangshao culture, approximately 5000 cal a BP. Rice production began no later than 4800 cal a BP, and continued to exist in the Qijia culture, approximately 4000 cal a BP. Agricultural production in Neolithic Longdong, specifically in the "Yuan" area of the loess plateau, developed as a shrub and grass dominated landscape. Vegetation in the river valleys was partly covered with Picea, Tusga, and Quercus coniferous and broadleaf mixed forests. Agricultural activity during the Neolithic period caused an increase in farmland on the loess tableland and a decrease in the abundance of shrub and grassland in the Longdong area. When farmlands were abandoned, vegetation recovered with Hippophae-, Rosaceae-, Ephedra-, and Leguminosae-dominated shrublands and Artemisia-dominated grasslands. © The Author(s) 2011.
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    Plant diversity of the Tianshui Basin in the western Loess Plateau during the mid-holocene - charcoal records from archaeological sites
    (Elsevier, 2013-10-02) Sun, N; Li, XQ; Dodson, JR; Zhou, XY; Zhao, KL; Yang, Q
    Assessing the potential impact of increased temperature needs examination of robust palaeorecords that contain analogues. The fossil charcoal (anthracological) records from the mid-Holocene archaeological sites can provide palaeo-analogues on the impacts of climate change. The Xishanping and Dadiwan sites were continuously developed during the Neolithic Culture in the Tianshui Basin, western Loess Plateau. A total of 24 samples of were recovered using a floatation method. At least 100 fragments were examined from each sample, and these fragments were identified following standard procedures, and the results were used to reconstruct the vegetation and plant diversity between 5200 and 4300 cal BP, which was a warm period for the region. The charcoal evidence from the Xishanping and Dadiwan sites confirm that woody plants were widely available, including temperate taxa such as Betula, Ulmus, Quercus, Carpinus, Acer, Corylus and Padus, and typical subtropical taxa such as Bambusoideae, Liquidambar formosana, Castanopsis, Pseudotsuga sinensis, and Eucommia ulmoides. The assemblages of fossil charcoal show that mixed forests of north-subtropical evergreen and deciduous broadleaved trees existed. This is a broader range of woody plants than at present in the Tianshui Basin. This leads to the conclusion that the warmer and increasing monsoon precipitation resulted in a northward shift in the southern vegetation zones. And that the natural botanical diversity between 5200 and 4300 cal BP was also greater than at present in the Tianshui Basin, western Loess Plateau. © 2013, Elsevier Ltd and INQUA.
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    Zonal vegetation change in the Chinese Loess Plateau since MIS 3
    (Elsevier Science, 2014-06-15) Zhou, XY; Li, XQ; Dodson, JR; Yang, SL; Long, H; Zhao, KL; Sun, N; Yang, Q; Liu, HB
    Three pollen records from different regions of the Chinese Loess Plateau (CLP) show that the zonal differentiation of vegetation was not large in late MIS 3 time, all the areas were covered by warm semi-humid grass-shrub land, with some conifer-broad leaf mixed forest in the valleys. It appears that the zonal differentiation of vegetation nearly disappeared in the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), while the semi-arid steppe expanded to the southern margin of the CLP. During the Holocene Thermal Maximum (HTM), the zonal differentiation became complex, with warm humid forest in the southeastern part and semi-arid steppe in the northern CLP. The zonal degree of vegetation differentiation of the CLP decreased again during the late Holocene as a result of climate change and increasing human influence on the landscape. In recent centuries, the transformation of the grass communities caused by land clearance for agriculture on the loess tablelands has been significant. © 2014, Elsevier Ltd.