Persistent humid climate favored the Qin and Western Han Dynasties in China around 2,200 y ago

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Qin, Chun; Yang, Bao; Braeuning, Achim; Ljungqvist, Fredrik Charpentier; Osborn, Timothy J.; Shishov, Vladimir; He, Minhui; Kang, Shuyuan; Schneider, Lea; Esper, Jan; Buentgen, Ulf; Griessinger, Jussi; Huang, Danqing; Zhang, Peng; Talento, Stefanie; Xoplaki, Elena; Luterbacher, Juerg; Stenseth, Nils Chr.
• 署名单位: Chinese Academy of Sciences; Nanjing University; University of Erlangen Nuremberg; Stockholm University; Stockholm University; Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study (SCAS); University of East Anglia; Siberian Federal University; Justus Liebig University Giessen; Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz; Czech Academy of Sciences; Global Change Research Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences; University of Cambridge; Masaryk University; Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology Domain; Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow & Landscape Research; Salzburg University; Nanjing University; University of Oslo
• 刊物名称: PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0027-12270
• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2415294121
• 发表日期: 2025-01-07
• 关键词: asian summer monsoon; temperature-change; stable-isotopes; tree-rings; variability; drought; precipitation; oxygen; patterns; hydrogen

摘要

The Qin and Western Han dynasties (221 BCE to 24 CE) represent an era of societal prosperity in China. However, due to a lack of high- resolution paleoclimate records it is still unclear whether the agricultural boost documented for this period was associated with more favorable climatic conditions. Here, multiparameter analysis of annually resolved tree- ring records and process- based physiological modeling provide evidence of stable and consistently humid climatic conditions during 270 to 77 BCE in northern China. Precipitation in the Asian summer monsoon region during the Qin-Western Han Dynasties was similar to 18 to 34% higher compared to present- day conditions. In shifting agricultural and pastoral boundaries similar to 60 to 100 km northwestward, possibility up to 200 km at times, persistently wetter conditions arguably increased food production, contributing to the socioeconomic prosperity around 2,200 y ago. A gradual wetting trend in the western part of arid northwestern China since the 1980s resembles the historical climate analogue, suggesting that similar benefits for regional environmental and agricultural systems may reoccur under current climate change, at least in the near term.