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Arid Land Geography ›› 2022, Vol. 45 ›› Issue (6): 1761-1772.doi: 10.12118/j.issn.1000-6060.2022.102

• Earth Surface Process • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Oases evolution in Tarim Basin since the Last Glacial Maximum: Progress and issues

SUN Aijun1,2,3(),ZHAO Hui2(),LIU Bing2,WANG Keqi2,3,CHAO Qian2,3,SHI Zhilin4,CHEN Fahu1,5,6   

  1. 1. Key Laboratory of Western China’s Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, Gansu, China
    2. Key Laboratory of Desert and Desertification, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, Gansu, China
    3. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
    4. Institute of Dunhuang Studies of Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, Gansu, China
    5. State Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Earth System, Resources and Environment, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, CAS, Beijing 100101, China
    6. Alpine Paleoecology and Human Adaptation Group (ALPHA), Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, CAS, Beijing 100101, China
  • Received:2022-03-16 Revised:2022-04-12 Online:2022-11-25 Published:2023-02-01
  • Contact: Hui ZHAO E-mail:sunaj20@lzu.edu.cn;hzhao@lzb.ac.cn

Abstract:

Oases around the Tarim Basin (TB), northwestern China, as key stations of the “Silk Road” in the historic time and the modern Silk Road Economic Belt, have been critical areas for human production and living since ancient times. It is crucial to investigate the process and mechanism of the evolution of these oases in the TB to explore the relationship between oasis evolution and human activities. However, because of human activities and complex environmental changes, the oasis deposit sequences in the TB are fragmental and discontinuous. Thus, it is necessary to systematically integrate profiles with oasis sediments to explore the completed oasis evolution process in the TB. In this study, we reviewed previous studies on oases in the TB and summarized the definitions of oasis and oasis deposits using the index system to better clarify these sediments. Twenty-four publications on oasis and fluvial-lacustrine deposit sections in the basin since 28 ka were selected, including 232 oasis and 120 fluvial-lacustrine deposit dating results. We used the probability density function (PDF) to analyze oasis and fluvial-lacustrine deposit development dates. The results show that there is a good temporal consistency between the two deposits in the entire basin, suggesting that the development of oases is closely related to hydrologic processes in the TB. Then, the PDF of oasis and fluvial-lacustrine deposits were compared with the temperature record from the Guliya ice core and humidity records from loess-paleosol sequences around the TB. The development of oasis and fluvial-lacustrine deposits are highly correlated with temperature changes before 6 ka and are associated with mountainous humidity after 6 ka. The results indicate that glacier meltwater is the main controlling factor of oasis development before 6 ka and that oasis flourishing after 6 ka is mainly due to mountain precipitation. Furthermore, comparing the PDF in different regions of the TB, oasis development is consistent in some periods and has regional differences. In the future, we should establish proxies representing the different stages of oasis development; large-scale sample collections and dating will be required to integrate the oasis evolution process in the TB region; the main control factors of oasis deposit evolution in different periods should be identified.

Key words: Last Glacial Maximum, oasis evolution, fluvial-lacustrine deposits, Tarim Basin