Persistent humid climate favored the Qin and Western Han Dynasties in China around 2,200 y ago
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: 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 ~18 to 34% higher compared to present-day conditions. In shifting agricultural and pastoral boundaries ~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.
Institutions: Chinese Academy of Sciences, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Nanjing University, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Stockholm University, Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study, Bolin Centre for Climate Research, University of East Anglia, Siberian Federal University, Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Academy of Sciences, Global Change Research Institute, Masaryk University, University of Cambridge, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, University of Salzburg, University of Oslo
Language: English
Topic: Tree-ring climate responses
Subfield: Atmospheric Science
Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDG: Climate action
Open Access status: hybrid
Awards: G1843985841, G2671998551, Modelling non-stationary tree growth responses to global warming, G3868355205, Disentangling socio-political and climatic factors for food insecurity in early modern northern Europe (c. AD 1500–1800), Verbundprojekt CLIMPRE_INTEGRATE: Eine integrative Daten-Modell Studie zu Interaktionen zwischen tropischen Monsun Regionen und außertropischen Klima Variationen und Extremen, An integrated data-model study of interactions between tropical monsoons and extra-tropical climate variability and extremes (INTEGRATE), G5278088985, G712881263, G7512813014, Grain at any price: Geographical patterns of food security in pre-industrial Europe, G7935023135, G8174748270, G8342093668, G8782396931
OpenAlex ID: W4405710737