Changes in sea level, water salinity and wetland habitat linked to the late agricultural development in the Pearl River delta plain of China

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• 作者：Yongqiang Zong^a ; ^{yqzong@hkucc.hku.hk} ; Zhuo Zheng^b ; Kangyou Huang^b ; Yiying Sun^a ; Ning Wang^a ; Min Tang^a ; Guangqing Huang^c
• 关键词：Late Holocene ; Salinity ; Marsh wetland ; Neolithic ; Rice agriculture ; Southern China
• 刊名：Quaternary Science Reviews
• 出版年：2013
• 出版时间：15 June, 2013
• 年：2013
• 卷：70
• 期：Complete
• 页码：145-157
• 全文大小：1509 K

文摘

Environmental change plays a significant role in the development of agriculture worldwide. The availability of wetland habitats and freshwater supply has been particularly important to the expansion and sustainability of rice-based economies. Some studies have emphasized the connections between societal changes and climatic fluctuations. However, recently emerged evidence has indicated the prevalence of human's initiatives. To tackle this complex issue, we employ a multi-proxy approach applying microfossil diatom/pollen and organic carbon isotopes collected from sediment cores of multiple locations to the reconstructions of palaeo-environment and identification of agricultural activity in the northern part of the Pearl River delta. Our study confirms the importance of environmental conditions, but also reveals initiatives taken by the agricultural communities in site selection for cultivation and settlements. Our results also show that freshwater wetland conditions became available in the most landward part of the deltaic plain along the West/North Rivers as early as 7000 years ago, since which wetland habitats expanded seawards as the deltaic shoreline advanced. By 2500 years ago, extensive freshwater wetlands already emerged in northwest part of the deltaic plain. However, before this time, economic activity within the deltaic basin was still predominantly based on fishing and gathering. This is possibly because the Neolithic communities did not need to adapt the labour-intensive cultivation due to the abundance of natural resources in the deltaic region, a strong contrast to what the communities in the Yangtze valley did 5000 years earlier. The agriculture was finally expanded about 2500-2200 years ago in a small area of marsh wetlands along a small river on the northern edge of the deltaic plain by a community migrated from the Yangtze basin. The agricultural activity was spread across the deltaic plain by about 1000 years ago, again as a result of the influx of migrants from the Yangtze basin. This study highlights the usefulness of the multi-proxy, multiple location approach that has helped pin-pointing the location where agriculture in the study area was originated.