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Arid Land Geography ›› 2023, Vol. 46 ›› Issue (4): 550-562.doi: 10.12118/j.issn.1000-6060.2022.306

• Surface Process and Ecological Environment • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Research progress of Holocene environmental evolution in the Gurbantunggut Desert and its surrounding areas

XU Yujie1,2(),LIU Bing1(),SUN Aijun1,2,3,WANG Keqi1,2,LI Dongxue1,2,ZHAO Hui1   

  1. 1. Key Laboratory of Desert and Desertification, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, Gansu, China
    2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
    3. Key Laboratory of Western China’s Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, Gansu, China
  • Received:2022-06-22 Revised:2022-07-19 Online:2023-04-25 Published:2023-04-28

Abstract:

The Gurbantunggut Desert (GGD), the largest fixed and semi-fixed desert in northwestern China, is the region most obviously affected by westerly circulation in China. Holocene environmental evolution and its response to global climate change have important scientific significance in understanding the modern surface process and future environmental evolution trends in the GGD. The previously studies on the Holocene environmental evolution of the GGD and its surrounding areas are controversial: some studies have concluded that optimal periods of precipitation/humidity happened in the Middle-Late Holocene, while others concluded that the optimal periods occurred in the Middle Holocene and that the genetic mechanism is in dispute between the monsoon intruding inland and the overall control by the westerly. This study reconstructs the Holocene climate/humidity variation using dimensionality reduction and integrated analysis based on the multiarchive records published in the study area, and synthesizes the Holocene aeolian sand activity history by sorting out the chronological distribution of the regional aeolian sedimentary stratigraphy. The coupling relationship between regional aeolian activity and humidity change is also examined. The results show that the early Middle Holocene (12-6 ka) in this area was arid, with considerable aeolian activity; the humidity gradually increased and the aeolian activity gradually weakened from the Middle to the Late Holocene. According to the comparative analysis on the regional and hemispheric scales, it is concluded that the environmental evolution process in the GGD is mainly controlled by the westerly circulation.

Key words: Holocene, humidity change, aeolian activities, genetic mechanism, Gurbantonggut Desert