Groundwater sapping as the cause of irreversible desertification of Hunshandake Sandy Lands, Inner Mongolia, northern China

• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1418090112
• Publication Date: 2015-01-06T04:08:12Z
• Authors: Xiaoping Yang; Louis A. Scuderi; Xulong Wang; Louis J. Scuderi; Deguo Zhang; Hongwei Li; Steven Forman; Qinghai Xu; Ruichang Wang; Weiwen Huang; Shixia Yang
• Keywords: Desertification; Inner mongolia; Desert (philosophy)

Significance In contrast to earlier assertions that deserts in northern China are 10 6 years old, our multidisciplinary investigation the Hunshandake Sandy Lands, located eastern portion of China’s desert belt, shows this is ca. 4,000 old. This study documents dramatic environmental and landscape changes during last 10,000 years. For first time knowledge we present a case desertification mainly triggered by hydrological geomorphological system, associated with climate change at 4.2 ka. Our research on human–environment interactions suggests Chinese civilization may be rooted marginal areas north, rather than middle reaches Yellow River.