Holocene pedogenic change and the emergence and decline of rain-fed cereal agriculture on the Chinese Loess Plateau

doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2004.06.003

Quaternary Science Reviews

Volume 23, Issues 23–24, December 2004, Pages 2525-2535

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2004.06.003 Get rights and content

Abstract

Multi-disciplinary investigations were carried out in a Holocene eolian loess-soil profile in the centre of the Chinese Loess Plateau at the transition between the arid Mongolian steppe and the semi-arid mixed forest, and also the transitional zone between nomadism and the rain-fed cereal agriculture in history. The cultural remains of an earliest rain-fed cereal agriculture, and also the remains of a Bronze Age nomadic community identified in the profile indicate that the regional emergence and decline of the rain-fed cereal agriculture was closely connected with the change in dust accumulation and soil formation. The climatic proxies derived from the profile show that monsoonal climatic variation, especially precipitation behind the pedogenic change, was ultimately responsible for the cultural and land-use change over the Loess Plateau. Increased precipitation brought on by southeast monsoon, conditioned the domestication and cultivation of millets in the southern part of the region during 8000–7000 a BP at the beginning of the Holocene climatic optimum. Sufficient precipitation and the well-developed fertile soils facilitated the expansion of millets cultivation to the northern Loess Plateau and the southern Mongolian Plateau between 7000 a BP and 3600 a BP. Reduced precipitation and deteriorated land-use conditions because of intensified northwest monsoon at the end of the Holocene climatic optimum caused a regional desertion by the arable farming communities and the invasion of the nomads in the northern part of the Loess Plateau from ca. 3600 a BP during the Bronze Age. Monsoonal climatic change and the resultant pedogenic change dramatically affected the cultural development over the Loess Plateau during the Holocene.

Introduction

The origin of agriculture was an important milestone in both environmental and cultural history. It represents the increasing ability of mankind in utilizing natural resources that paved the way for subsequent technological and cultural development. During the past 10,000 years agriculture has caused significant changes in Earth's ecosystems. However, the transition from a reliance on wild species of plants and animals to food production occurred at different times and in different regions. The middle reaches of the Yellow River, the major part of which is occupied by the Loess Plateau, has been established as an independent centre for the origin of agriculture (An, 1989, Crawford, 1992). Two of the important cereal crops, notably foxtail millet (Setaria italica) and broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum), were domesticated in the southern part of the region during 8000–7000 a BP. The earliest Neolithic agricultural communities inhabiting in the Loess Plateau belong to the Laoguantai Culture, Dadiwan Culture, and Peiligang Culture, respectively. Archaeological investigations show that the cultivation of millets occurred in the southern part of the region between 8000 a BP and 7000 a BP. It expanded northward to all over the Loess Plateau and the southern part of the Mongolian Plateau after 7000 a BP along with the development of the Yangshao Culture, Miaodigou Culture, Majiayao Culture and the Longshan Culture, Qijia Culture and Xia Culture. However, in the northern part of the Loess Plateau rain-fed cereal cultivation declined and nomadism or nomadism-dominated cultures emerged from ca. 3600 a BP while cereal cultivation remained and became increasingly more important in food production and supported the imperialization of the Shang Dynasty in the southern part of the region (Figs. 1 and 2; Shui, 2000). Subsequently, the contests for land resources between the nomadic tribes on the north and the sedentary agricultural societies on the south have always been performed on the Loess Plateau during the past 3600 years. Therefore, the Great Wall was constructed on the north border of the Loess Plateau in the Qin Dynasty (221–207 BC) initially and maintained in history with the purpose of stopping southward migration of the nomads. However, in the history of the Loess Plateau, the dryer periods have always coincided with the largest invasions of nomadic tribes from the northern steppe into the sown lands and the desertion of cities. In contrast, humid periods are associated with the northward movement of arable farmers and rain-fed cereal agriculture, as well as the creation of cities and towns close to the Great Wall (Fang and Liu, 1992; Huang et al., 2002a).

Available archaeological evidence has established the spatial and temporal pattern of the pre-historical agriculture in the middle reaches of the Yellow River. Our soil-stratigraphic investigations in the southern part of the Loess Plateau have revealed a mid-Holocene palaeosol (or soil complex) in which the Neolithic cultural remains are born in different levels in it (Huang et al., 2000a, Huang et al., 2000b). Other researchers have also noted these features on both the Loess Plateau and the southern Mongolian Plateau (Zhou, 2000, Tian, 2000). However, due to the lack of multi-disciplinary studies, the question as to the main reasons for the pre-historical change in land-use and culture over the Loess Plateau remain unanswered.

Our further field investigations in the historical frontal zone between nomadism and sedentary agriculture on the Loess Plateau show that the emergence, expansion and decline of Neolithic cereal cultivation appear to be closely connected with the pedogenic change of a palaeosol (or palaeosol complex) formed in the middle Holocene as shown in Figs. 3 and 4. The higher-resolution analytical data of multi-proxies, from a typical Holocene eolian loess-soil profile, presented in this paper defines the change in eolian dust accumulation, pedogenesis and monsoonal climate in the historical frontal zone between nomadism and cereal cultivation in the centre of the Loess Plateau. It also demonstrates the coincidence of the emergence and decline of the Neolithic rain-fed cereal agriculture and the changes in soil formation in connection with the change in monsoonal precipitation and soil moisture. This offers insights into human-environment interaction in the middle reaches of the Yellow River, which is known as the cradle of the Chinese civilization.

Section snippets

Site, soil-stratigraphic horizons and chronology

The studied site, Majiayuan loess hill ( $36^{\circ}$ $2^{'} N$ , $108^{\circ}$ $10^{'} E$ , 1400 m a.s.l.) is situated in Heshui County, Gansu Province in the centre of the Loess Plateau where the ecological transition from the arid Mongolian steppe to the semi-arid mixed forest zone is located (Fig. 1). The mean annual temperature is 8– $9^{\circ} C$ , precipitation 500–550 mm, and evaporation 1500–1600 mm. The land has been dissected into flat-topped ridges and hills by the densely distributed gullies and the tributaries of the Jinghe

Methods

The stratigraphic subdivisions and pedological horizons were observed during fieldwork by close examination of the color, texture and structure in the MJY profile. Samples were then taken every 2 cm down the profile. Samples for OSL dating were taken from the profile at the same time. Magnetic susceptibility was measured on a mass of 10 g of ground sediment with a Bartington MS2 magnetic susceptibility meter (0.47/4.7 kHz). Grain-size distribution was analyzed using a Mastersizer-S laser analyzer

Results and interpretation

Magnetic susceptibility is inferred to be a record of the changing intensity of pedogenesis during eolian dust accumulation, resulting dominantly from precipitation change relating to monsoonal climatic variation (Maher, 1998; Huang et al., 2000). Magnetic susceptibility varies between 40 and $130 \times 10^{- 8} m^{3} {kg}^{- 1}$ in the MJY profile (Fig. 3). The lowest values (30– $50 \times 10^{- 8} m^{3} {kg}^{- 1}$ ) are present in the Malan Loess $(L_{1})$ of the last glaciation. The highest values (100– $130 \times 10^{- 8} m^{3} {kg}^{- 1}$ ) are present in the

Discussion

Because of their eolian origin, both the loess accumulation and the soil formation occur synchronously in all regions over the Loess Plateau. The Holocene soil-stratigraphic structure in the MJY profile is the one that is frequently observed on the flat land, high or low, over the plateau. The records of the Laoguantai Culture (8000–7000 a BP) that developed the Neolithic rain-fed agriculture on the southern part of the Loess Plateau are sealed in the bottom part of the palaeosol $(S_{0})$ , and the

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Professor C. Murray-Wallace and an anonymous reviewer for their helpful comments and suggestions for improvement. This study was supported by the grants from the National Social Science Foundation (No. 04BZS022), the Education Ministry of PRC (No. 02069) and the State Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on Loess Plateau (No. 10501-105).

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Chinese loess and the evolution of the East Asian monsoon
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Citation Excerpt :
The regional paleoclimate and environmental evolution have been reconstructed on the basis of interdisciplinary studies, including geology, edaphology, sedimentology, climatology and chronology (Kukla et al., 1988; An, 2000; Zhao et al., 2007; Jia et al., 2008; Wan et al., 2016; Maher, 2016; Mao et al., 2017; Bian et al., 2018). Human activities are closely related to environmental changes in the Holocene (Huang, 2001; Huang et al., 2003a, 2004, 2006a; Zhu et al., 2017; Liu et al., 2019; Zhang et al., 2019a; Zhao et al., 2020). Previous studies have established a complete Holocene chronostratigraphic framework and these records have revealed strong correlations between monsoon climate change and human development in the Loess Plateau (Huang, 2001; Huang et al., 2003a, 2003b, 2003c, 2004, 2006a, 2009b; Zhao et al., 2007).
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View full text

Holocene pedogenic change and the emergence and decline of rain-fed cereal agriculture on the Chinese Loess Plateau

Abstract

Introduction

Section snippets

Site, soil-stratigraphic horizons and chronology

Methods

Results and interpretation

Discussion

Acknowledgements

Journal of Arid Environments

Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology

Prehistorical culture in China

Prehistoric plant domestication

Relationship between climatic changes and the nomadic southward migrations in Eastern Asia during historical times

Climatic Change

Magnetic susceptibility of modern soils in China and climate conditions

Studia Geophysica et Geodetica

A regional aridity phase and its possible cultural impact during the Holocene Megathermal in the Guanzhong Basin, China

The Holocene

Chinese loess and the evolution of the East Asian monsoon

Progress in Physical Geography