The genesis and paleoenvironmental records of Longji agricultural terraces, southern China: A pilot study of human–environment interaction | |
Yongjian Jiang; Shijie Li; Desuo Cai; Wei Chen; Yan Liu; Zi Yu | |
2014 | |
Source Publication | Quaternary International
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Volume | 321Pages:12-21 |
Abstract | Ancient agricultural terraces distributed over the mountainous areas in southern China can be taken as new objects for studies on human–environment interaction in the past. However, this type of study is rare. This study selected Longji Terraces (Longsheng, Guilin), one of the famous ancient agricultural terraces, to explore its genesis and paleoenvironmental records. Three soil profiles including an original hillslope woodland soil profile and two terrace profiles were sampled for analyses of physical and geochemical proxies and radiocarbon dating. Cultivated soil in the terrace profile shows aggradation, making the cultivated horizon a bottom–up chronological sedimentary sequence. Two basal samples in the cultivated horizons of two parallel terrace profiles show calibrated ages of 1361–1406 AD and 1335–1384 AD respectively, indicating that the genesis of Longji Terraces occurred during the late Yuan Dynasty in Chinese history. Strong survival pressure and desire for new living space in the turbulent social situation of the late Yuan Dynasty might have been the direct factor forcing some people of national minorities to migrate to the Longji Mountain area, where they effectively utilized the hillslope land and water resources for cultivation by building agricultural terraces and constructing a gravity irrigation network. Multi-proxy analyses of the cultivated horizon of one selected terrace profile reveal that human farming activity has experienced a staged strengthening process, including four stages since the late 14th century. Moreover, some changes of the intensity of human farming activity found within each stage might reflect the impact of climatic fluctuations on human farming activity during the Little Ice Age and the later warming period. |
Indexed By | SCI |
Language | 中文 |
Document Type | 期刊论文 |
Identifier | http://ir.gyig.ac.cn/handle/42920512-1/9374 |
Collection | 环境地球化学国家重点实验室 |
Affiliation | 1.State Key Laboratory of Lake Science and Environment, Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 73 East Beijing Road, Nanjing 210008, PR China 2.State Key Laboratory of Environmental Geochemistry, Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 46 Guanshui Road, Guiyang 550002, PR China 3.University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 19 Yuquan Road, Beijing 100049, PR China 4.Monitoring Station of Soil and Water Conservation, Guangxi Provincial Water Resources Department, 12 Jianzheng Road, Nanning 530023, PR China 5.College of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Guangxi University, 100 Daxue Road, Nanning 530004, PR China |
Recommended Citation GB/T 7714 | Yongjian Jiang;Shijie Li;Desuo Cai;Wei Chen;Yan Liu;Zi Yu. The genesis and paleoenvironmental records of Longji agricultural terraces, southern China: A pilot study of human–environment interaction[J]. Quaternary International,2014,321:12-21. |
APA | Yongjian Jiang;Shijie Li;Desuo Cai;Wei Chen;Yan Liu;Zi Yu.(2014).The genesis and paleoenvironmental records of Longji agricultural terraces, southern China: A pilot study of human–environment interaction.Quaternary International,321,12-21. |
MLA | Yongjian Jiang;Shijie Li;Desuo Cai;Wei Chen;Yan Liu;Zi Yu."The genesis and paleoenvironmental records of Longji agricultural terraces, southern China: A pilot study of human–environment interaction".Quaternary International 321(2014):12-21. |
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