Shizitan in Jixian County, Shanxi Province, is a site of transitional period from Paleolithic to Neolithic. The dating and the sporopollen analysis show that the middle reaches of the Yellow River where the site is located had been maintaining a steppe environment during 35.1-9.4 kaBP, in which, 35.1-17 kaBP belonged to the last glacial. With cold and dry climate, this period featured a desert steppe environment. In the late of this period, the area had a cold and half-humid steppe environment. The 17.0-11.9 kaBP belonged to the early- and mid-period of the last deglaciation. Mild and half-arid steppe alternates with mild and half-arid steppe, with a small amount of deciduous broadleaf species. During the period of 11.9-10.5 kaBP, cold and dry glacial climate appeared once more, featuring a desert steppe environment. During 10.5-9.4 kaBP, it is mild and half-arid, and later transited toward warm and half-humid. The early phase of this period featured a steppe environment and the later transited into a
Zhengkai XiaGe ChenGongwang ZhengFuyou ChenJunqing Han
Vegetation changes and human influences on natural environments since 5 000 a BP were discussed based on the pollen data supported by radiocarbon dating from Cangumiao and Yujiawa profiles in Qian'an Basin, the southern area of Yanshan Mountain. The research indicates that (1) from 4 600 to 3 100 a BP, deciduous broad_leaved forests dominated by Quercus grew in the Basin, (2) after 3 100 a BP, broad_leaved species reduced and Pinus increased, in response to the cooling climate, (3) since 1 600 a BP, forests had been destroyed seriously due to the increase of agricultural activities, and (4) pollen analysis showed that Castanea trees had been cultivated for 1 600 years, and Oryza had been planted for 700 years in Qian'an Basin.
Desertification control has been facing severe situations in the interlocking area between cultivated land and grazing land in North China since the Qing Dynasty because of unreasonable land utilization. The paper analyzes the policies of all the previous governments to open up land, and examines the historical and geographical background and process by means of historical records. We consider that causes of the area of land desertification to extend are increase of farming migrants, the change of life style of Mongol and weather and land conditions. In order to control the spread of land desertification, we suggest the level of the government to make policies should be improved, the number of farming migrants should be controlled, the Government′s general and specific polices should be actively publicized, and investment in agriculture should be increased.
YAN Ting-zhen1 , CHEN Xi-bo2 , HAN Guang-hui1 (1. Department of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, P. R. China
