TY - JOUR
T1 - Historical environmental changes in the Poyang Lake basin (Yangtze River, China) and impacts on agricultural activities
AU - He, Maofeng
AU - Bu, Fengxian
AU - Delang, Claudio O.
AU - Xie, Jialin
AU - Ye, Quan
AU - Zhao, Hongfei
AU - He, Qilin
AU - He, Wenming
N1 - The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The research was funded by the National Social Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 18BZS154), Key Platforms and Scientific Research Projects in Universities in Guangdong Province of China (Grant No. 2018KTSCX212), and Guangdong Rural Science and Technology Commissioner Project of China (163-2019-XMZC-0009-02-0065).
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2021.
PY - 2021/10/8
Y1 - 2021/10/8
N2 - Climate change and human activities have been an important part of studies regarding historical environmental changes in China over the past 2000 years. In this study, we focused on environmental changes, that is, natural disasters and human activities, in the Poyang Lake Basin over the past 2000 years, to analyze interactions between land use cover changes and human activities from the perspective of regional sustainable development. We collected historical records of climate and hydrology, floods and droughts, and rivers and lakes in the Poyang Lake area, and established time sequences for the floods and droughts, lake water level and lake area, amount of farming land, and population, in order to discuss interactions between changes in the environment and the climate, with emphasis on the impacts of extreme events on lake and river basin environment changes. The following results were obtained. First, climate changes in historical periods had wide-ranging and far-reaching impacts on agricultural production, especially disasters caused by climate change. Among the changes in the Poyang Lake basin environment, including river network systems, lake water levels, etc., changes in lake water volume are direct evidence of climate change, adaptation to climate change, and obvious phased characteristics. Second, in the process of changes to the lake and river network in the Poyang Lake Basin, social and economic development is accompanied by evolution of the lake. Increases and decreases in population, the scale of agricultural production, and lake environment changes have direct and significant interactions. Third, the Poyang Lake basin’s environmental changes during the historical period are mainly reflected in the pressure feedback mode of “population–agriculture” in the lake environment.
AB - Climate change and human activities have been an important part of studies regarding historical environmental changes in China over the past 2000 years. In this study, we focused on environmental changes, that is, natural disasters and human activities, in the Poyang Lake Basin over the past 2000 years, to analyze interactions between land use cover changes and human activities from the perspective of regional sustainable development. We collected historical records of climate and hydrology, floods and droughts, and rivers and lakes in the Poyang Lake area, and established time sequences for the floods and droughts, lake water level and lake area, amount of farming land, and population, in order to discuss interactions between changes in the environment and the climate, with emphasis on the impacts of extreme events on lake and river basin environment changes. The following results were obtained. First, climate changes in historical periods had wide-ranging and far-reaching impacts on agricultural production, especially disasters caused by climate change. Among the changes in the Poyang Lake basin environment, including river network systems, lake water levels, etc., changes in lake water volume are direct evidence of climate change, adaptation to climate change, and obvious phased characteristics. Second, in the process of changes to the lake and river network in the Poyang Lake Basin, social and economic development is accompanied by evolution of the lake. Increases and decreases in population, the scale of agricultural production, and lake environment changes have direct and significant interactions. Third, the Poyang Lake basin’s environmental changes during the historical period are mainly reflected in the pressure feedback mode of “population–agriculture” in the lake environment.
KW - agriculture activities
KW - climate extreme evens
KW - environment changes
KW - flood and drought
KW - Poyang Lake
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85116650376&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/09596836211047777
DO - 10.1177/09596836211047777
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85116650376
SN - 0959-6836
VL - 32
SP - 17
EP - 28
JO - Holocene
JF - Holocene
IS - 1-2
ER -