Articles | Volume 16, issue 5
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-2483-2024
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-2483-2024
Data description paper
 | 
24 May 2024
Data description paper |  | 24 May 2024

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

Hui Shen, Robert N. Spengler, Xinying Zhou, Alison Betts, Peter Weiming Jia, Keliang Zhao, and Xiaoqiang Li

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This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Biogeosciences (BG).
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Cited articles

Abudureheman, B., Liu, H.-L., Liu, N., Zhang, D.-Y., and Guan, K.: Spermatophyte floras in the wild fruit forest in Tianshan Mountains, Arid Land Geogr., 39, 828–834, 2016 (in Chinese with English abstract). 
Allué, E. and Zaidner, Y.: The charcoal assemblage from Nesher Ramla, Israel: A contribution to the paleo-environmental dataset from Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5 in the Levant, Quatern. Int., 624, 117–127, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2021.04.025, 2022. 
An, C., Feng, Z., and Tang, L.: Environment change and cultural response between 8000 and 4000 cal. yr BP in the western Loess Plateau, NW China, J. Quaternary Sci., 19, 529–535, https://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.849, 2004. 
An, C., Tang, L., Barton, L., and Chen, F.: Climatic Change and Cultural Response around 4,000 cal. yr B.P. in the western part of the Chinese Loess Plateau, Quaternary Res., 63, 347–352, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yqres.2005.02.004, 2005. 
An, C., Wang, L., Ji, D., Chen, F., and Wang, P.: The temporal and spatial changes of Neolithic cultures in Gansu-Qinghai region and possible environmental forcing, Quaternary Sci., 26, 923–927, 2006 (in Chinese with English abstract). 
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Understanding how early farmers adapted to their environments is important regarding how we respond to the changing climate. Here, we present wood charcoal records from northwestern China to explore human–environmental interactions. Our data suggest that people started managing chestnut trees around 4600 BP and cultivating fruit trees and transporting conifers from 3500 BP. From 2500 BP, people established horticultural systems, showing that they actively adapted to the environment.
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