Relationship between environmental evolution and human activities in the northeastern Qinghai-Xizang Plateau throughout the past millennium and its implications for the onset of the Anthropocene
作者机构:School of Geographical Sciences Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology Key Laboratory of Alpine Ecology Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research Chinese Academy of Sciences State Key Laboratory of Lake Science and Environment Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology Chinese Academy of Sciences
出 版 物:《Science China Earth Sciences》 (中国科学:地球科学(英文版))
年 卷 期:2024年第67卷第11期
页 面:3536-3549页
核心收录:
学科分类:070905[理学-第四纪地质学] 0709[理学-地质学] 07[理学] 070601[理学-气象学] 0706[理学-大气科学]
基 金:supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 42171160 42225105 42071115 41972193)
主 题:Anthropocene Qinghai-Xizang Plateau (QXP) Climate change Environmental evolution Human activities
摘 要:In current research on the Anthropocene, assessing the impact of human activities via stratigraphic records of sediments and demarcating the Anthropocene epoch globally are critical scientific issues that urgently need to be addressed. The northeastern Qinghai-Xizang Plateau(QXP), where humans first settled permanently in large numbers in the QXP, has varying sedimentary environments that are extremely sensitive to human activities. In contrast to other regions of the QXP, the northeastern sector boasts a richer array of climatic and environmental reconstruction sequences. This distinctive feature renders it an exemplary locale for investigating the stratigraphic boundary of the Anthropocene. Through in-depth analysis and integration of existing paleoclimate and paleoenvironment sequences in the northeastern QXP, we draw the following conclusions:(1) Throughout the past millennium, the impact of human activities on the environment of the northeastern QXP has become increasingly significant, especially in the past 200–300 years, gradually overshadowing climatic factors.(2) Since AD 1950,multiple physicochemical indicators related to human activities in the northeastern QXP have shown exponential growth,forming a distinct peak within the past millennium and clearly depicting the global “Great Acceleration phenomenon and its development process.(3) Intensified human activities have driven swift environmental shifts and “decoupled the interplay between climatic variations and the ecological environment, propelling the northeastern QXP into the “Early Anthropocenefrom the “Late Holocene. On the basis of the above findings, we construct a model suitable for identifying the stratigraphic boundary of the Anthropocene in the northeastern QXP and note that since the ecological environment in the northeastern QXP has entered the “Early Anthropocene, the climate signals of certain physicochemical indicators in sediments are gradually becoming weaker, whereas the signals of