Abstract
Over the past several thousand years, arid and semiarid China has experienced a series of asynchronous desertification events in its semiarid sandy and desert regions, but the precise identification of the driving forces of such events has remained elusive. In this paper we identify two rapid desertification events (RDEs) at ~4.6 ± 0.2 ka BP and ~3.3 ± 0.2 ka BP from the JJ Profile, located in the eastern Mu Us Sandy Lands. These RDEs appear to have occurred immediately following periods marked by persistently frequent and intense fires. We argue that such fire patterns, directly linked to an uncontrolled human use of vegetation as fuel, played a key role in accelerating RDEs by ensuring that the land surface was degraded beyond the threshold required for rapid desertification. This would suggest that the future use of a massive and sustained ecological program of vegetation rehabilitation should reduce the risk of destructive fire.
Highlights
The arid and semiarid region of North China consists principally of sandy lands, deserts and loess deposits, and lies at the junction of four principal atmospheric circulatory systems (Fig. 1A)
We report on a Mid to Late Holocene microcharcoal record used as a proxy for fire characteristics in the Mu Us Sandy Lands (Fig. 1B) in an attempt to explore the relation between fire and rapid desertification events (RDEs)
Based upon the deterioration in the climate, the lands system moves towards a drier state until it reaches the RDE threshold (Fig. 4A); this can reasonably be applied to an area such as the Hunshandake Sandy Lands before groundwater extraction is taken into account[12]
Summary
In this paper we identify two rapid desertification events (RDEs) at ~4.6 ± 0.2 ka BP and ~3.3 ± 0.2 ka BP from the JJ Profile, located in the eastern Mu Us Sandy Lands These RDEs appear to have occurred immediately following periods marked by persistently frequent and intense fires. We argue that such fire patterns, directly linked to an uncontrolled human use of vegetation as fuel, played a key role in accelerating RDEs by ensuring that the land surface was degraded beyond the threshold required for rapid desertification. Total MC (Fig. 2D), MC>50 μm/MC50 μm/MCR>50 μm (Fig. 2F) ratios were obtained to infer fire strength (frequency and/or intensity), fire travel distance (open and/or local) and fire material types (herbaceous and/or woody), respectively; the total pollen concentration (PC) was employed to assess vegetation coverage (Fig. 2G)
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