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Reconstruction of cropland cover changes in the Shandong Province over the past 300 years.

ABSTRACT: To advance global change research, it is essential to reconstruct changes in historical cropland coverage on a regional scale in China. This paper presents data collected from 244 local gazetteers, government statistical records and remote-sensing land cover data from the Shandong Province. The study reconstructed the spatial distribution of the rate of reclaimed land at the county level and compared this map with a map of the current spatial distribution of suitable cropland. The following conclusions were drawn: (i) The rate of cultivated land grew exponentially. The extent of reconstruction in cropland areas during the 17(th) century, 18(th)~19(th) centuries, the beginning of the 20(th) century, the 1980 s, and the beginning of the 20(th) century are 4.51 mha, 6.51 mha, 7.52 mha, 8.53 mha and 11.80-12.00 mha, respectively. (ii) Several agricultural centers formed during the late 17(th) century. Until the beginning of the 20(th) century, the reclamation rate increased rapidly near the four southern lakes, which are located in the Zaozhuang and Linyi regions. (iii) Most reclamation activities before the 19(th) century occurred in suitable agricultural areas, and the cultivated land was already reclaimed by the beginning of the 20(th) century.

SUBMITTER: Ye Y

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4570983 | biostudies-other | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Project description:Characterization of land cover change in the past is fundamental to understand the evolution and present state of the Earth system, the amount of carbon and nutrient stocks in terrestrial ecosystems, and the role played by land-atmosphere interactions in influencing climate. The estimation of land cover changes using palynology is a mature field, as thousands of sites in Europe have been investigated over the last century. Nonetheless, a quantitative land cover reconstruction at a continental scale has been largely missing. Here, we present a series of maps detailing the evolution of European forest cover during last 12,000 years. Our reconstructions are based on the Modern Analog Technique (MAT): a calibration dataset is built by coupling modern pollen samples with the corresponding satellite-based forest-cover data. Fossil reconstructions are then performed by assigning to every fossil sample the average forest cover of its closest modern analogs. The occurrence of fossil pollen assemblages with no counterparts in modern vegetation represents a known limit of analog-based methods. To lessen the influence of no-analog situations, pollen taxa were converted into plant functional types prior to running the MAT algorithm. We then interpolate site-specific reconstructions for each timeslice using a four-dimensional gridding procedure to create continuous gridded maps at a continental scale. The performance of the MAT is compared against methodologically independent forest-cover reconstructions produced using the REVEALS method. MAT and REVEALS estimates are most of the time in good agreement at a trend level, yet MAT regularly underestimates the occurrence of densely forested situations, requiring the application of a bias correction procedure. The calibrated MAT-based maps draw a coherent picture of the establishment of forests in Europe in the Early Holocene with the greatest forest-cover fractions reconstructed between ?8,500 and 6,000 calibrated years BP. This forest maximum is followed by a general decline in all parts of the continent, likely as a result of anthropogenic deforestation. The continuous spatial and temporal nature of our reconstruction, its continental coverage, and gridded format make it suitable for climate, hydrological, and biogeochemical modeling, among other uses.

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Reconstruction of cropland cover changes in the Shandong Province over the past 300 years.

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