Late Quaternary Climate Change and Human Adaptation in Arid China

221 Pages·2007·8.524 MB·1-237\221

by  D.B. Madsen, F.H. Chen and X. Gao (Eds.)

Contents
Part I Introduction
1 Archeology at the margins: Exploringthe Late Paleolithic toNeolithic transition inChina’s arid west
DavidB. Madsen, Chen Fa-Huand Gao Xing 3
Part II Climate Change
2 Responses ofChinesedesertlakes toclimateinstability during the past 45,000 years
Bernd Wu¨nnemann, Kai Hartmann, Manon Janssen and C. Zhang Hucai 11
3 Post-glacial climate variability anddroughteventsin the monsoon transitionzone ofwesternChina
Chen Fa-Hu,ChengBo,ZhaoHui,FanYu-Xin, David B. Madsen and Jin Ming 25
4 Vegetation evolution inarid China during marine isotope stages 3 and 2(~65-11ka)
UlrikeHerzschuh and Xingqi Liu 41
5 Holocene vegetation andclimate changes from fossil pollen records in aridand semi-aridChina
Zhao Yan, Yu Zicheng,ChenFa-Hu and AnChengbang 51
Part III TheoreticalPerspectives
6 Variationin Late Quaternary central Asian climates andthe nature of human response
DavidB. Madsen and Robert G.Elston 69
7 The transitionto agriculture innorthwestern China
Robert L. Bettinger, Loukas Barton, Peter J.Richerson, Robert Boyd,Wang Hui and ChoiWon 83
Part IV Regional and Chronological Perspectives
8 Late Pleistocene climate change and Paleolithic cultural evolution innorthern China: Implications
from the Last Glacial Maximum
Loukas Barton,P. JeffreyBrantinghamand Ji Duxue 105
9 Ashort chronology for the peopling of the Tibetan Plateau
P. JeffreyBrantingham, Gao Xing, JohnW. Olsen, Ma Haizhou, David Rhode,ZhangHaiying
and David B. Madsen 129
10 Modeling the Neolithic on the Tibetan Plateau
Mark S. Aldenderfer 151
11 Zooarcheological evidence for animal domestication innorthwest China
Rowan K. Flad, Yuan Jing 袁靖 and LiShuicheng李水城 167
12 Yaks,yak dung andprehistoric human habitation ofthe Tibetan Plateau
DavidRhode, David B. Madsen, P. Jeffrey Brantingham and TsultrimDargye 205
Part V Summary and Integration
13 Changing views of Late Quaternary human adaptationinarid China
DavidB. Madsen, Chen Fa-Huand Gao Xing 227
Subject Index 233
1
Archeology at the margins: Exploring the Late Paleolithic to Neolithic
transition in China’s arid west
DavidB. Madsen1, Chen Fa-Hu2 andGao Xing3
1Texas Archeological Research Laboratory, University ofTexas
2Center for Arid Environment andPaleoclimate Research, Lanzhou University and Cold andArid Regions
Environmental andEngineering ResearchLaboratory, Chinese Academy ofScience
3Institute ofVertebratePaleontology and Paleoanthropology, ChineseAcademyof Sciences
Abstract 2. The Expedition Era
TheHoloceneresponsetothedramaticclimatechangeevents ArcheologyhasdeeprootsinChinesesocietyintheformof
inaridChinaduringthePleistocene/Holocenetransitionhas material remains considered as part of cultural history. The
not,untilrecently, been thesubjectofintensive study.This collection and interpretation of bronze objects created by
has been due to a continuing and long-standing split in earlier dynasties was common during the Han Dynasty
Chinesearcheologybetweenthegeo-chronologicaloriented (from 206 BC to AD 220) and flowered during the later
study of the Paleolithic and the historiographic orientation Song (AD 960–1279) and Qing (AD 1644–1911) dynasties,
oftheNeolithic.Thisdichotomyhasbeenreducedinthelast when ancient artifacts were primarily used as an aid in
fewdecadesasChineseandWesternscholarshaveincreasingly epigraphic studies (Shi, 2001; Cao, 2005). As a result,
focused on the critical transition from the foragers of the archeology in China, focused as it was on the study of
Paleolithic to the farmers and pastoralists of the Neolithic. inscriptions,started asanaspectofhistory,anditremained
The chapters in this volume report the results of much of largely historical in focus even as it crystallized as an aca-
that recent work. demic discipline during the twentieth century. Even as late
as 1981 Chang noted ‘‘archeology remains a tool...of
Chinesehistoriography’’ (Chang,1981:156).
1. Introduction FormalarcheologicalresearchinChinabeganduringthe
late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries following
The chapters in this volume revolve, for the most part, China’s opening to the West. A number of foreign-led
around the interplay between climatic and cultural change archeologicalexpeditions,most notably those of Sven Hedin
among the prehistoric foragers, early horticulturalists and (e.g.,Hedin,1903)andAurelStein(e.g.,Stein,1903,1912)
initial pastoralists of China’s arid west. Chronologically produced dramatic interest in Chinese antiquities both
theyfocusonthetransitionalperiodbetweenthePaleolithic worldwide and among the Chinese intellectual community.
foragers of the Late Pleistocene and the Neolithic farmers This antiquarian interest was not unlike that which laid
andpastoralistsoftheEarly-to-MiddleHolocene.Forreasons the foundation for the growth of archeology as a discipline
we discuss below, this period has, until recently, been elsewhere, but differed from the growth of western arche-
poorly studied despite it being critical to understanding ologyduetotheextendedChinesehistoricalrecordandthe
one of the world’s few areas where domesticated crops recovery of written records from archeological excavations
were independently invented (Smith, 1998). This situation beginning in 1899. The discovery of Buddhist writings in
ischangingrapidly,andherewepresentaseriesofchapters the Dunhuang Caves of western Gansu and the inscribed
that together provide a snapshot of current research on the wooden tablets from the ‘‘lost city’’ of Lou-lan in the
humanresponsetothePleistocene/Holocenetransition.While Taklimakan Desert of Xinjiang, for example, not only
a number of similar collections are available for the Paleo- furtherstimulatedanalreadyfocusedepigraphicorientation
lithicperiod(e.g.,Aigner,1981;WuandOlsen,1985;Shen inChinesearcheologicalstudies,butalsofosteredaviewof
and Keates, 2003) and for the Later Neolithic and Bronze archeology as a nationalistic endeavor in response to what
Age(e.g.,Underhill,1997;Liu,2005),thelackofattention waslittlemorethanlootingbysomeforeignexplorers(e.g.,
paid to the critical transitional period in these volumes is von Le Coq, 1926).
illustrative of a distinct gap in Chinese archeological After World War I, this nationalistic interest in China’s
research. Since a number of short histories on the develop- past, combined with renewed interest inChinese prehistory
mentofarcheologyinChinaareavailabletoEnglishreaders byforeignscholars,ledtoadecadeormoreofwhatcouldbe
(e.g., Chang, 1981; Tong, 1995; Shi, 2001; Chang, 2002; called the Expedition Phase of Chinese archeology. During
Chen,2003;Cao,2005),wehereexploreonlywhyandhow the1920sandearly1930s,extendedmulti-yearexpeditions
that gapcametobe, and how it is presentlybeingreduced. such as those of the ‘‘Central Asiatic Expedition’’ of the
DEVELOPMENTSINQUATERNARYSCIENCES
VOLUME9 ISSN1571-0866 (cid:2)2007ELSEVIERB.V.
DOI:10.1016/S1571-0866(07)09002-1 ALLRIGHTSRESERVED
3
4 D.B. Madsen, Chen Fa-Hu &Gao Xing
AmericanMuseumofNaturalHistory(Andrews,1932)and Kexueyuan). As the original name implies, this organization
theFrench‘‘LaCroisie`reJaune’’expedition(LeFe`vre,1935). has always been oriented towards historiography and
Alloftheseexpeditionsincludedprofessionalforeignarche- epigraphy and has limited its research almost exclusively to
ologists, as well as Chinese scholars, who as part of their the Late Holocene period. Three sections of the institute are
participation in these projects often received archeological divided chronologically into pre-2000 BC archeology (but
trainingatforeignuniversities.Manyofthesescholars,such reallylimitedtothatafter10–12,00014CyrBP),thearcheology
as Pei Wenzhong (W.C. Pei), educated in France, and Li Ji of the Xia through Zhou dynasties ((cid:2)2000–221 BC), and the
(Li Chi), educated in the United States, went on to become archeologyoftheHanandlaterdynasties(after221BC).
the leaders ofChina’sfirst archeological institutions. This basic split between Neolithic archeology oriented
In addition to these extended foreign expeditions, a towardsthedescriptiveclassificationsystemsofhistoryand
number of expatriate foreign scholars working at China’s Paleolithic archeology oriented to equally descriptive
educational and governmental institutions also began to geologybasedonchronologyandstratigraphyis,asaresult,
train their Chinese colleagues as archeologists. These deeplyembeddedintheorganizationalstructure(xitong)of
included the Canadian Davidson Black at Peking Medical Chinesearcheologicalresearch.Thisdichotomyhasperme-
College,theSwedeJohanGunnarAnderssonattheChinese atedChinesearcheologicalresearchformorethan80years.
Geological Survey, and the French Jesuit scholars Pierre Muchofthiscontinuedsplithasbeenduetothecentralized
Teilhard de Chardin and Emile Licent. While none of nature ofgovernmentalorganization, anditwasonlyinthe
these men were professional archeologists, they were last decades of the twentieth century that provincial level
trainedpaleontologists,anatomists,andgeologicalstratigra- archeologicalinstitutesandmuseumsbegantoconducttheir
phersandhelpeddefinetheinitialdescriptiveclassification own archeological investigations on more than a limited
systemsfortheChineseprehistoricsequence.Manyofthese basis and without substantial centralized oversight.
expatriate scholars assisted in the excavations of Zhoukou- Much of this local work was undertaken under the
dian (Chou-k’ou-tien) in one way or another, and several, auspices of the National Cultural Relics Bureau (Guojia
particularlyTeilhard,linkedwhatwasinrealityarelatively Wenwuju), initially created in 1950, and was usually con-
small,mixedcommunityofChineseandinternationalscho- ducted in response to construction-related discoveries of
larsbyservingonanumberofdifferentexpeditionprojects. archeological sites. The Cultural Relics Bureau and its
provinciallevelofficesareprimarilyregulatoryandfunding
agencies, and, for the most part, take their lead in research
3. Archeological Bureaucracy orientation from the IVPP and the Institute of Archeology.
This regulatory and funding structure thus served to rein-
The long-term Zhoukoudian excavations, oriented as they force the dichotomy between Paleolithic and Neolithic
were to the recovery of the hominid fossils and cultural archeology.
remains of ‘‘Peking Man’’, also served to focus a segment
of this research community on the fossils and associated
artifactsofChina’sEarly-to-MiddlePaleolithicperiod.This 4. Isolation and Politics
focus was formalized by the creation of the Cenozoic
Research Laboratory in the Geological Survey of China in This split was further exacerbated by the cultural isolation
1929. After the Communist Revolution, this office was of China through the middle years of the twentieth century
reorganized in 1949 as part of the Institute of Paleontology andbyaseriesofintensesocialupheavalssuchastheGreat
oftheChineseAcademyofSciences,andreorganizedagain Proletarian Cultural Revolution of 1966–1976. Of equal
in 1957 as the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and importwerethepoliticalpressuresunderwhicharcheologi-
Paleoanthropology (IVPP; Gujizhuidongwu yu Gurenlei cal research was conducted during the early decades of the
Yanjiusuo). Regardless of its formal organization, this People’s Republic of China. Since the evolution of class
researchgroup,withwhatmaybeseenlooselyasan‘‘arche- society is such an integral part of Marxist theory, explana-
ology as geology’’ theoretical orientation, has remained tionsforthedevelopmentofChinesecivilizationduringthe
focused on the study of human evolution within China Neolithicwerecloselymonitored(VonFalkenhausen,1993;
restrictedtothe Paleolithic period. Tong,1995),andtheInstituteofArcheologybecamehighly
An ‘‘archeology as history’’ research group was also politicized. The Paleolithic, on the other hand, particularly
formalized in the 1920s with the creation of an archeologi- as related to hominid evolution and the Early-to-Middle
cal research office within the Institute of History and Paleolithic, was deemed to be less critical to Marxist
Philology(LishiYuyanYanjiusuo)oftheChineseResearch political thought, and, thus, less subject to political over-
Academy.Inaddition,anarcheologicalresearchoffice was sight(althoughonlyrelatively;politicalpressureiscertainly
established within Chinese Studies at Peking University at evident in some of the work ofthe IVPP during the middle
aboutthesametime.In1950,thesetwoorganizationswere years of the twentieth century). As a result, research con-
combined into the Institute of Archeology of the Chinese ducted by the IVPP and associated universities and
Academy of Sciences (Zhonggou Kexueyuan) and even- museums, tended to shy away from investigations of Late
tually separated out with other social sciences into the Paleolithic foragers and the antecedents to agriculture that
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (Zhongguo Shehui might attract political pressure. Conversely, the Institute of
Archeology atthe margins 5
Archeology and its associated research groups tended to withinternationalscholarstoinvestigatethegreatunknown
focusontheincreasingcomplexitiesofagriculturalsocieties, voidinChineseprehistory.InChina’saridwest,theopening
with little attention beingpaid their antecedents. of many areas previously closed to foreign visitation in the
In short, until China began to open its doors to inter- lastdecadeshasalsobeencriticaltothisincreasedresearch
nationalresearchcooperationinthe1980sandincreasingly focus on the Pleistocene/Holocene transition.
inthe1990s,archeologicalresearchconcerningthePleisto- Much of this new research has focused on the human
cene/Holocene transition and the development of incipient responsetoenvironmentalchangeandwhatcouldbecalled
agriculture was something of an orphan. From the start of ‘‘environmental archeology’’ is now well established in
formal archeological research in the 1920s, there has been Chinese archeological research. Most major projects in
a split between the historiographic archeology of the China are now multi-disciplinary in scope and a variety of
Neolithic and the geochronologically based archeology of environmentalarcheologyprogramshavebeendevelopedin
thePaleolithic.Furthermore,untilthelastfewdecades,this major Chinese universities. Because of the continued focus
split was reinforced by political pressure that virtually ofarcheological research onthe Neolithic and the develop-
precluded study ofthe transitional period. ment of Chinese civilization, much of this more recent
The theoretical understanding of the processes through environmental archeology has been directed at identifying
whichthistransitionoccurredhasalsobeenhamperedbythe relationships between centennial- to millennial-scale climate
dichotomy in research interests, by political pressures, and, changeeventsduringtheHolocene(e.g.,Chenetal.,2001;
particularly,bytherelativeisolationofChinesearcheological Jin and Liu, 2002; Huang et al., 2002; Wu and Liu, 2004;
research. Much of this intellectual isolation was due to An et al., 2004; An et al., 2005). Increasing attention has
the massive social disruptions of the twentieth century. alsobeenpaidtotheimpactoftheserelativelyshortclimatic
The Great Depression of the 1930s and the initiation of cycles on transitional foraging societies and the develop-
the Sino-Japanese War, World War II, the decades-long mentofagriculture(Xiaetal.,2002).Muchofthisresearch
revolution culminating in the establishment of the People’s remains descriptive, however, and the mechanisms that
Republic of China in 1949, the initial formation of govern- might explain such linkages are notoftenexplored.
mentalorganizationsandtightcontrolofpoliticalthoughtin
the1950s,andtheCulturalRevolutionofthelate1960sand
early 1970s, all served to isolate Chinese scholars from 6. Modelingthe Paleolithicto NeolithicTransition
evolving archeological theory found in the rest of the
world, including the former Soviet-Bloc. While a variety Muchoftheworkthatisreportedinthisvolumerepresents
of theoretical and methodological advances changed the an attempt to change that descriptive orientation. In the
way archeology was conducted in the West, much of Chi- following chapters we explore the transition from the
nese archeology remained limited to the typological classi- foraging societies of the Late Paleolithic to the emergence
fication schemes and descriptive orientation of the cultural ofsettledfarmingsocietiesandtheinitialpastoralismofthe
historical approach developedin the 1920sand 1930s. middle Neolithic. Because of significant differences with
cultural evolution in the wetter monsoon areas of south-
eastern China, we focus on China’s more arid west
5. The New Wave (Fig. 1) where millet agriculture and nomadic pastoralism
were developed (for a brief review of the Paleolithic/Neo-
ThislimitationwasopenlyrecognizedbytheChinesearche- lithic transition in southeastern China see Cohen, 2003;
ological community and, with the opening of China in the Wu andZhao,2003).
1980s, Chinese archeological research began to change Theenvironmentalsettingforthistransitionisprovided
rapidly as Chinese archeologists began to interact more byseveralchaptersinthefirstsectionthattogetherprovide
freely with their international counterparts and as interna- summaries of environmental change spanning Marine
tionalliteraturebegantobemorewidelyavailableinChina. Isotope Stages 3–1 ((cid:2)45,000 years ago to the present).
This increasing diversity in theoretical and methodological These four chapters focus on changes in plant distributions
orientation accelerated in the 1990s and early years of the and water availability, those aspects of the landscape that
twenty-first century as the Chinese government began to are most critical to human foraging societies. The first
actively encourage scholarly exchange and cooperation chapter by Wu¨nneman et al. deals with Late Pleistocene
with international research groups. As a result, Chinese and Holocene lake level fluctuations, respectively, and, by
scholarseducatedabroadbegantoreturninincreasingnum- extension, changes in the amount and distribution of open
bers, bringing a wide array of new ideas and technological water available to foragers in the region. The second, by
skillswiththem.Thisspiritofinternationalcooperationand Chen et al., combines multi-proxy data from a terminal
openness to different approaches laid the foundation for desert lake with loess records from the Loess Plateau to
muchoftheworkreportedinthisvolume.Inthelastseveral explore centennial- to millennial-scale climate cycles and
decades, Chinese scholars interested in such topics as droughtintervals on the margin ofthe East Asian monsoon
foraging theory, processes of animal domestication, the duringthepost-glacialperiod.Asthearcheologicalchapters
advent of pastoralism, and the initial manipulation of make clear, many of these events may have been critical
agricultural plants such as rice and millet, began to team in the evolution of both Upper Paleolithic and Neolithic
6 D.B. Madsen, Chen Fa-Hu &Gao Xing
75°0′0″ E 80°0′0″ E 85°0′0″ E 90°0′0″ E 95°0′0″ E 100°0′0″ E 105°0′0″ E 110°0′0″ E 115°0′0″ E 120°0′0″ E 125°0′0″ E 130°0′0″ E 135°0′0″ E
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75°0′0″ E 80°0′0″ E 85°0′0″ E 90°0′0″ E 95°0′0″ E 100°0′0″ E 105°0′0″ E 110°0′0″ E 115°0′0″ E 120°0′0″ E 125°0′0″ E 130°0′0″ E 135°0′0″ E
Fig. 1. Location ofthe Tibetan and Loess plateaus and the major desert regionsofmainland China.
cultures.ChaptersbyHerzschuhetal.andZhaoetal.review northwest.SincemuchoftheMid-to-Neolithicintheregion
pollen-based analyses of vegetation change, again during involved the development of pastoralism, this is a critical
the Late Pleistocene and Holocene, respectively. Together topic. Rhode et al. discuss one instance of domestication,
these chapters also reflect the orientation of much recent that of the yak, and explore how the use of dung as fuel in
paleoenvironmentalresearchinChina’saridwest. highland environments may have been involved in that
This is followed by a section with two theoretically process.
oriented chapters by Madsen and Elston, and by Bettinger Finally, in the concluding section, we try to summarize
etal.thatexplorepossibleexplanatorymodelsforthelinks what these chapters tell us about the interaction between
betweenclimateandculturalchange,particularlythosethat climate and culture in China’s arid west during the Late
mighthaveinfluencedthedevelopmentofmilletagriculture. Quaternary, and try to set the stage for future research.
SuchtheoreticalissuesremainpoorlydevelopedinChinese Clearly, these research questions are both diverse and
archeological research and the chapters will hopefully numerous, but now that this critical transitional period is
contribute to ongoing discussions of these issues. They more open to archeological research they can begin to be
also provide a bridge between the chapters in the environ- addressed andanswered.
mentalsectionandthearcheologicalchaptersthatfollowin
the third section.
These archeologicalchaptersexplore avarietyoftopics Acknowledgments
chronologically spanning the Late Pleistocene to Middle
Holocene. The first chapter by Barton et al. examines the We thank John Olsen and Evelyn Seelinger for critical
presence of foragers in northwestern China during the Last reviews of this manuscript, and Sam Gardner and Loukas
Glacial Maximum, a period previously thought to have Barton for assistance with graphics.
limited occupation, and reviews the relationship between
climatechange andpopulationexpansions andcontractions
during Isotope Stage 2. Brantingham et al. follow by References
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2
Responses of Chinese desert lakes to climate instability during the past 45,000 years
BerndWu¨nnemann1,*, Kai Hartmann2, Manon Janssen1and C. Zhang Hucai3
1Interdisciplinary CentreEcosystemDynamics in Central Asia (EDCA),FreieUniversitaet Berlin,Malteserstr.
74–100,12249 Berlin,Germany
2Institut fuer Geographische Wissenschaften,FreieUniversitaet Berlin,Malteserstr. 74–100, 12249 Berlin, Germany
3Nanjing InstituteofGeography andLimnology, ChineseAcademyof Sciences (NIGLAS),China
*Correspondenceandrequests for materials should beaddressed toBernd Wu¨nnemann
(e-mail:[email protected])
Abstract On the other hand, very little is known about feedback
mechanisms controlling the expansion or shrinkage of arid
Lake status records from desert lakes north of the Tibetan regionsinInnerAsiaduringthelastglacialcycleandwhich
Plateau and in the vicinity of the Tien Shan display strong of them might be dominant. The deserts north of the TPL
periodic alternations in lake hydrology and confirm syn- and in the vicinity of the Tien Shan constitute large sedi-
chronous and asynchronous reactions to monsoon climate mentaryareaswithlakebasinswhichappeartobelong-term
variations and westerly wind driven dynamics over archives of water and sediment storage, indicating that a
central Asia during the past 45,000 years. Centennial to given lake status, reconstructed on the basis of various
millennial scale changes in lake status during the last proxies, is in equilibrium with the prevailing climate. As
glacial stage were in direct response to synchronous feed- most of these lake basins are connected with the glaciated
backsofvariationsintheAsianmonsoonanditsreactionsto highmountains,theirwaterbudgetsandlinkedsedimentary
large-scaleoceancirculationandglacierdynamicsinGreen- processesarestronglyinfluencedbothbyclimate-controlled
land and Tibet. Since the onset of the Asian summer variations in the precipitation – evaporation pattern (P–E-
monsoon 13ka ago, desert lakes have responded asynchro- ratio) and by tectonically induced changes in catchment
nously with temporal and spatial shifts of some 100 years topography and runoff characteristics. The special signifi-
between short-term climate-induced variations in moisture cance of this dryland belt in strongly continental China
availability. north of the TPL with respect to climate reconstructions is
due to the fact that two different northern hemispheric air
masses – the East Asian Monsoon and the extra-tropical
westerlies intersect in this region. Both wind regimes are
1. Introduction potential sources for water vapour transport, affecting the
regional hydrological systems on the TPL and the desert
Althoughitiswidelyacceptedthatthemaindrivingforceof forelands. Alternations in the summer monsoon strength as
climate shifts in orbital bands is strongly related to solar one prominent source for water vapour transport from low
radiation (insolation) through time (e.g. Berger and Loutre, latitudes into the interior of China seem to have responded
1991; Clement et al., 2001; Leuschner and Sirocko, 2003), synchronously to major shifts in the climate system on a
feedbackmechanismssuchasinlandicedynamics,thermo- global scale, but on a regional scale the monsoonal effect
haline circulation and the atmospheric circulation pattern varied considerably (An et al., 2000).
(e.g. the Northern Hemisphere low- and mid-latitude mon- Various lake records from north-western China north
soon systems) may have affected land – ocean thermody- of the TPL confirm dramatic changes in water balance
namic relations quite differently at regional scales. In (Pachur et al., 1995; Wu¨nnemann et al., 1998, Chen et al.,
particular, the climates over Asia seem to have been 2003; Zhang et al., 2001, 2002, 2004) since the last glacia-
strongly influenced by the uplift of the Tibetan Plateau tion, but until now it has remained uncertain which of the
(TPL) (An et al., 2001), co-controlling the evolution of the above-mentioned forcing mechanisms are responsible for
Asian monsoon system and the establishment of the Inner changes in the hydrological conditions of each system. As
Asian dryland belt. However, palaeoclimate studies reveal all desert lakes in north-western China are far beyond or
thegeneralhigh-frequencyclimateinstabilityduringthelast close to the modern limit of the Asian summer monsoon it
glacial cycle, well known from Greenland ice cores and would be of crucial interest to know whether lakes
fromNorthAtlanticsedimentcoresasstadials(Bondcycles, responded synchronously to climate variability in space
Heinrich events) and interstadials (Dansgaard – Oeschger and time and what have been the controlling factors for
cycles) on timescales of a few millennia (e.g. Dansgaard lake development at different places. Hence, we used lake
et al.,1993;Bond et al.,1997). recordsfromtheChinesedesertbeltandtransferredthedata
DEVELOPMENTSINQUATERNARYSCIENCES
VOLUME9 ISSN1571-0866 (cid:2)2007ELSEVIERB.V.
DOI:10.1016/S1571-0866(07)09003-3 ALLRIGHTSRESERVED
11
12 Bernd Wu¨nnemann et al.
intolakestatusrecordsasabaseforasynopticcontribution Hartmann, 2003; Chen et al., 2003, 2005; Zhang et al.,
towards a better understanding of climate influenced inter- 2002, 2004). They comprise five classes adapted to the
relations between the TPL andits forelands. collapsed coding system used in the Lake Status Data
Base: 1 (extremely low or dry, hypersaline), 2 (low, saline
or strong fluvial input), 3 (intermediate, slightly brackish),
2. Methods and Data Base 4 (high, stable freshwater conditions, biologically active)
and 5 (extremely high, freshwater conditions).
Lake records used for status coding as documented in the Thechronologyofeachstatusisbasedonatotalof122
Data Base Documentation of the Max Planck Institute for radiocarbondatesoflacustrinesediments,supplementedby
Biogeochemistry,Jena,Germany(Yuetal.,2001)arebased 326datesfromthevicinitiesofthesites.Figure3showsthe
on the interpretation of multiple proxies derived from lake frequency of radiocarbon dates from sites north of the TPL
sediment structure and origin, geochemistry, biology and versus time. The majority of dates derived from organic
geomorphologicalfeatures(palaeo-shorelines,etc.).Coding carbon refers to the Holocene period, while only few data-
therefore represents a qualitative index of changes in lake sets from the Late Pleistocene are available so far. Despite
level, area or relative water depth, thus documenting the possible errors of dates from lacustrine carbonates and
water balanceofeach system. shells, however, the histogram displays periods of low fre-
Our study is based on lake status records of 15 sites quency or even lacking data. We assume that those time-
of endoreic lake basins in China between 86–116(cid:3)E and windows may represent phases of unfavourable conditions
37–46(cid:3)N (Fig. 1), comprising five well-investigated lakes interms oflake formation.
from Xinjiang Province (Manas lake, Bosten lake, Aiding All radiocarbon data were converted into calibrated ka
lake, Lop Nor, Balikun lake), three palaeolakes from the BP using the standard calibration program (Stuiver et al.,
western Alashan Plateau, Inner Mongolia, (western Gaxun 1998) as well as adapted equations to calculate ages on the
Nur, Gaxun Nur main lake and Juyanze lake), four palaeo- base of the dataset of the Cariaco basin (Hughen et al.,
lakesfromtheeasternAlashanPlateau,GansuProvinceand 2004) for the time span olderthan 24,00014C yr BP.
Inner Mongolia (Hongshui river bank, Yiema lake, Duan-
touliang palaeolake, Tudungcao, Baijian lake) and two
furtherlakesnortheastoftheYellowRiver,InnerMongolia 3. Resultsand Discussion
(YanhaizelakeandChangannur),thuscoveringtheChinese
dryland belt north of the TPL in an east-west transect. Our Except for two lakes (Fig. 1, nos 14 and 15) all the catch-
lake status records as demonstrated for selected lakes in ments are or were associated with glacier systems in the
Fig. 2 are based on available data from the literature high mountains. Fig. 4A shows the record of mean lake
also used in the Chinese Lake Status Data Base (Yu et al., status in 100-year intervals with a clear division into two
2001) as well as on own investigations (e.g. Pachur et al., parts: frequently high values from 45 to 25ka and fluctuat-
1995;Wu¨nnemann et al., 1998, 2007; Wu¨nnemann, 2003; ing but lower values from 25ka to present time. In our
opinion, the standard deviation (Fig. 4B) documents local
hydrologicalpeculiaritiesandclimateimpacts.Hence,indi-
vidual lake evolution often conceals a global interplay
betweenclimaticevents.Inviewoftheshortageofavailable
data for the period >25ka, the chronology of the status
codings remains tentative for this time span in comparison
totheyoungerperiod.Nonetheless,ourrecordisconsidered
representative becauseaveragingprocedure wasbased ona
sufficiently large number of lakes for each time interval
(Fig.4C).
3.1 Late Pleistocene LakeStatus Records
During the interstadial episode of the last glaciation positive
Fig. 1. Sketch map of north-western China with location
water budgets in the desert regions revealed large lakes
of study sites. 1-Manas lake, 2-Bosten lake, 3-Aiding lake, (Pachuretal.,1995)probablycausedbybothenhancedwest-
4-Lop Nur, 5-Balikun lake, 6-Gaxun Nur, west lake, 7-
windand monsoon-driven moisture supply in the lake catch-
Gaxun Nur main lake, 8-Eastern Juyanze lake, 9-Hongshui
ments. These processes seem to have run almost
(modern river bank), 10-Yiema lake (SJC), 11-Douantou-
synchronously between Xinjiang in western China and the
liang, 12-Tudungcao, 13-Baijian lake, 14-Yanhaize lake,
Yellow River as the approximate eastern limit of the study
15-Chagannur.Thedashedlinemarksthemodernboundary area. In our view, one main reason for the dominance of
of the East Asian monsoon; the shaded areas mark the
favourable hydrological conditions over more than 2000km
mountainregionsin north-western China.
of longitude is the link between lake water budgets and
Responsesof Chinese desert lakes 13
glacier systems in the high mountains of the TPL and Tien water flow as the main controlling factors for lake status
Shan.Weconsiderthatthepositivewaterbudgetsofthedesert changes. This assumption fits in with ice-core data from
lakesbetween44and25ka(Fig.5A)canonlybeexplainedby Tibet(Thompsonetal.,1997;Thompson,2000),wherefluc-
higher local precipitation in conjunction with very high melt tuationsoftheoxygenisotopesnotonlyindicatetemperature
Fig.2. LakestatusrecordsfromaridChina.Codingreferstoresultsonlithology,geochemistry,fossilremains,morophology
andradiocarbondating.Age–depthrelationwithcalculatedsedimentaccumulationratesarethebaseforboundariesinlake
status.A:Manaslake(Huangetal.,1987;Sunetal.,1994;Rhodes etal.1996; Linetal.,1996,Yuetal.,2001);B:Bosten
lake(Wu¨nnemannetal.,2003,2007;MischkeandWu¨nnemann,2006);C:AidingLake(Lietal.,1989;Yangetal.,1996,Yuet
al.,2001);D:LopNur(Yuetal.,2001);E:Balikunlake (Yuetal.,2001);F:GaxunNurWest(Wu¨nnemann,1999;Wu¨nnemann
and Hartmann, 2002; Wu¨nnemannel etal.,2007).G:Gaxun Nur mainbasin (Wu¨nnemann,1999; Wu¨nnemann and Hartmann
2002; Wu¨nnemann et al., 2007); H: G36, Eastern Juyanze (Hartmann, 2003; Herzschuh et al., 2004). I: Hongshue river
(Wu¨nnemann,1999;Zhangetal;2000);J:YiemaLake(SJC-section,Chenetal.,2003,2005);K:Duatouliangsection(Pachur
etal.,1995;Wu¨nnemannetal.,1998;Wu¨nnemann,1999;Zhangetal.,2001,2002);L:Tudungcaosection(Wu¨nnemannetal.,
1998);M:BaijianLake(Pachuretal.,1995;Wu¨nnemannetal.,1998;Wu¨nnemann1999;Zhangetal.,2002,2004);N:Yanhaize
Lake(Chen,C.T.Aetal.,2003);O:ChagannurLake(Yuetal.,2001).
14 Bernd Wu¨nnemann et al.
Fig. 2. (Continued)