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Abstract Because of similar astronomical background, Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 11 is viewed as an analogue of the Holocene, but the evolution of seasonal climatic instability during MIS 11 has not been well investigated. Here we present a time series of land-snail eggs—a recently-developed proxy of seasonal cooling events—from the Chinese Loess Plateau (CLP) to investigate seasonal climatic instability during MIS 11 and adjacent glacials. Due to the impact of low temperatures on egg hatching, egg-abundance peaks document seasonal cooling events. A total of five egg-abundance peaks were recorded in the CLP during MIS 12, MIS 11 and MIS 10. Three peaks are strong and occur close to glacial inception or interglacial-to-glacial transition; two weaker peaks occur during MIS11. These peaks imply seasonal climatic instability intensifies mainly during glacial initiation or transition. All these events correspond to ice-sheet growth and the loss of ice-rafted debris at high northern latitudes. Moreover, they occurred at the minima of local spring insolation during the MIS 12 and MIS 10 glacials, but at the maxima during the MIS 11 interglacial. This may contribute to the difference in the intensity of seasonal cooling events between low-eccentricity glacials and interglacials. Our results provide new evidence for understanding low-eccentricity interglacial–glacial evolution.

Abstract Fluctuations in monsoonal climate on orbital‐ to millennial‐timescales have had a major impact on vegetation change in East Asia since the last deglaciation. However, the influence of centennial‐scale oscillations on the spatio‐temporal characteristics of vegetation and climate during the last deglaciation remains controversial. We present a well‐dated, decadal‐resolution pollen record from the sediments of annually laminated Lake Xiaolongwan in Northeast Asia, which reveals major orbital‐/millennial‐scale and minor quasi‐periodic, that is, ∼500‐year (yr) cyclic, vegetation changes from ∼19.96 to ∼10.79 Kyr ago (covering the last deglaciation). The ∼500‐yr cycles are characterized by alternations in broadleaved forest/boreal coniferous forest with tundra steppe representing warm and humid/cold and dry phases of the monsoonal climate. This cyclicity may be related to El Niño‐like/La Niña‐like state and low‐latitude atmosphere‐ocean processes, against the background of the long‐term trend of the deglacial climatic evolution. Our findings demonstrate a close relationship between ecosystem succession and climate change on centennial scale.

Scientists have been puzzled by the disparity between climate simulations of the past 12,000 years and geological records. Dong et al. reconstructed past annual and seasonal temperatures from land snail records to examine the potential seasonal bias.

Abstract A new, seasonal, laminated ice core pollen record spanning the last 13 years (2000–2012) from Zuoqiupu Glacier (5,600 m a.s.l.), located on the southeastern Tibetan Plateau (TP), reveals clear variations in pollen concentration and assemblage. A total of 117 continuous ice core layers were used for pollen analysis. Samples with high concentrations of Pinus and Tsuga could be identified as layers accumulated in spring, samples with high concentrations of Alnus and Artemisia could be identified as layers accumulated in autumn, and samples rich in herbaceous plant pollen could be regarded as layers deposited in summer. Three peaks of Tsuga pollen concentration accompanied by high Pinus content occurred in the spring of 2003, 2007, and 2010, which corresponded to wetter and warmer conditions modulated by the El Niño decaying phase (April–May in 2003, 2007, and 2010). Thus, pollen grains deposited on the Zuoqiupu Glacier can be used to study the impacts of atmospheric circulations on seasonal climate change over the southeastern TP.

Legumes and cereals, which provide different nutrients, are cultivated as coupled crops in most centers of plant domestication worldwide. However, as the only legume domesticated in China, the spatio-temporal distribution of soybeans and its status in the millet- and rice-based agricultural system of the Neolithic and Bronze Ages remains elusive. Here, archaeobotanical evidence of soybeans (n=254), millet (n=462), rice (n=482), and zooarchaeological evidence of fish (n=138) were synthesized to elucidate the phenomenon of coupled or decoupled cereals and legumes in prehistoric China. During the Neolithic and Bronze Ages, soybeans was mostly confined to northern China and rarely found in southern China, serving as a companion to millet. In contrast, fish remains have been widely found in southern China, indicating a continuous reliance on fish as a staple food besides rice. Thus, an antipodal pattern of millet-soybeans and rice-fish agricultural systems may have been established in northern and southern China since the late Yangshao period (6000–5000 cal BP) respectively. These two agricultural systems were not only complementary in terms of diet, but they also exhibited positive interactions and feedback in the coculture system. Consequently, these two systems enabled the sustainable intensification of agriculture and served as the basis for the emergence of complex societies and early states in the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers.

The Zang-Yi Corridor is of pivotal significance for the interactions between northwest China, southwest China, and mainland Southeast Asia. It has been hypothesized that the formation of mixed farming in this region and its surrounding areas was based on multiple waves of crop dispersal, with foxtail millet and broomcorn millet arriving first from northwest China around 5,300 cal. BP and rice from middle Yangtze valley after 4,700 cal. BP. Based on the systematic sampling and direct dating conducted at the Guijiabao site, Sichuan Province, this study demonstrates that by no later than 5,000 cal. BP, mixed farming had already emerged in the south part of Zang-Yi corridor, which was much earlier than expected before. With this new evidence, it is argued that the transformation into farming in Southwest China was based on the dispersal of a crop package comprising foxtail millet, broomcorn millet, and rice instead of different waves of introduction. A further comparison of all archaeobotanical data in this region revealed that crop patterns varied significantly between different sites because of their diverse environmental conditions.

Human activity has transformed the Earth’s landscapes pervasively for thousands of years, and the most important anthropogenic alteration was the clearing of forests and the establishment of agriculture. As a center of rice domestication and early population growth, the lower Yangtze River has been extensively transformed in the Holocene. However, the timing, extent, and process of deforestation and its relationship with the intensification of rice cultivation remain controversial. Here, four representative archaeological sites ranging from 8,100 to 4,300 cal a BP, that is, Jingtoushan, Hemudu, Yushan, and Xiawangdu sites, were selected for detailed palynological analysis, and evidence of anthropogenic deforestation and subsistence strategy were also synthesized to investigate dynamic human–forest interaction. Although natural vegetation had already been altered at the Jingtoushan site around 8,000 cal a BP, it was more likely to be the management of acorns by limiting burning to open habitats and increasing yield. As the subsistence shifted from acorn exploitation toward rice cultivation after 6,000 cal a BP, real deforestation for agriculture may occur at the Yushan and Xiawangdu sites due to conflict on labor input and land use. However, these deforestations were just confined to the archaeological sites at local scale, and no consistent vegetation change occurred at regional scales induced by human activities until the last 3,000 years.

The magnitude and rate of the expansion of the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) rain belt under future climatic warming are unclear. Appropriate ecological proxy data may provide an improved understanding of the spatial extension of the EASM during past warming intervals. We reconstructed the spatiotemporal pattern of the extension of the EASM since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), using six well-dated mollusk fossil sequences from Chinese loess sections located on the modern northern edge of the EASM. The abundance of typical dominant mollusk species indicative of EASM intensity shows a delayed response, from ∼17 ka in the southeastern sections to ∼9 ka in the northwestern sections, during the last deglacial warming. Isoline plots based on a mollusk data synthesis show that the mollusk EASM indicators have a northeast–southwest zonal distribution for both the present-day, the cold LGM, and the warm mid-Holocene, which is consistent with the spatial pattern of modern precipitation. The resulting estimated expansion rate of EASM intensity accelerated during ∼12–9 ka (∼50 km/ka), which corresponds to the early Holocene interval of rapid climatic warming, a northwestward shift of ∼150 km compared to today. This implies that the northern fringe of the EASM in northern China will become wetter in the coming century, under moderate warming scenarios.

Identifying when agricultural expansion has occurred and how it altered the landscape is critical for understanding human social survival strategies as well as current ecological diversity. In the present study, phytolith records of three profiles from the Baodun site area were dated to the period from 7,500 to 2,500 aBP by optically stimulated luminescence and 14C dating, providing the first evidence that the Asian cultivated rice (Oryza sativa) progenitor was distributed in the Chengdu Plain as early as 7,500 aBP. The percentage of rice bulliform with ≥9 scales and the concentration of rice phytoliths sharply increased by approximately 4,200 aBP, suggesting that rice cultivation occupied a dominant position in survival strategy no later than approximately 4,200 aBP, which might be driven by climate deterioration in eastern China. The results further showed that the proportion of Bambusoideae phytoliths increased synchronously with the increase in the proportion of rice phytoliths, suggesting that the vegetation structure near the site was changed intentionally as a consequence of increasing rice agricultural activity since 4,200 aBP. The present study contributes to a deeper understanding of the distribution of wild rice and rice farming throughout the Baodun culture in the Chengdu Plain, and it also provides a glimpse of how humans intentionally changed the vegetation landscape on a local scale.

Long-term climate cycles can potentially influence population dynamics, including those of humans. Here, the authors combine climate and archaeological records from Northeast China over the past 8000 years and demonstrate ~500 year cycles in both the monsoon and human activity.

Neolithic rice remains were recovered from a mixed rice–millet farming area in China outside the original centers of rice farming. Whether the rice remains were the result of local cultivation or obtained through trade remains unclear. Rice paddy fields are direct evidence of local cultivation. In this study, phytolith samples from the Zhangwangzhuang site were analyzed. The discriminant function distinguished 17 of 30 samples in the suspected paddy field area as rice paddy fields with an average probability of 74%; The proportion of rice bulliform phytoliths with ≥9 scales indicated that rice (Oryza sativa) was still being domesticated and, moreover, six η-type phytoliths from broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum) were identified. These results suggested that the suspected paddy field at Zhangwangzhuang might be the earliest rice paddy field (ca. 6000 cal. BP) in northern China and that mixed farming was practiced here since the early Yangshao period. This study adopted discriminant analysis methods to discover ancient rice paddy fields, observed rice paddy fields outside the core rice origin area, and provided the earliest evidence regarding the development of mixed rice–millet farming in the upper Huai River region.

Wetlands were important resources for the hunting–gathering and early farming communities in coastal areas in the Neolithic. However, the relationship between the development of the wetland environment and the human population remains unclear due to the lack of successive wetland environmental changes throughout the Holocene in coastal areas. Here, the summed probability distributions (SPD) of radiocarbon dates of peat were used as an indicator and combined with archaeological radiocarbon dates to reconstruct the wetland environmental and demographic changes during the Neolithic in the lower Yangtze region. The results showed that the shifts in demographic centers and population development were related to wetland environment with peat formation. The first shift of the demographic center was from the hilly regions to the coastal plain and occurred during ca. 8,300–8,000 cal yr BP, which might be caused by the attractiveness of survival resources offered by the coastal wetland environment and the 8.2 ka event. The second shift occurred from the Ningshao Plain to the Taihu region and might be attributed to the widespread waterlogged environment in the Ningshao Plain. The peak of demographic development coincided with the peak of peat formation during the middle Holocene in the lower Yangtze region, indicating that the wetland environment facilitated changes in human societies. The formation of peat might be related to the sea-level and El Niño-Southern Oscillation events; however, further studies are required for deep comprehension. The present study is an attempt at identifying the past impacts of the wetland environment on demographic development and can form the basis for a more comprehensive understanding of the interactions between the humans and their living environment.

The cascading impacts of climate-driven vegetation change on terrestrial invertebrates via trophic and habitat routes is a matter of outstanding concern. However, the combined responses of plant-animal associations in terrestrial ecosystems have seldom been reported on geological timescales, which raises the important questions of how frequently and to what extent such multi-trophic shifts in taxa have occurred during previous warming scenarios. Here we use a combination of mollusk, palynological, and climatic proxy evidence preserved within loess deposits in the southern Chinese Loess Plateau (CLP) to demonstrate how long-term changes in hydroclimatic dynamics during the past 26 kyr were reflected in the subsequent ecological changes. Specifically, there was a shift from a predominantly cold-tolerant mollusk fauna in a dry-steppe environment under cold-dry conditions during the last glacial, to a predominantly thermal-mesophilous fauna in a meadow-steppe environment under a warm temperate climate in the early-middle Holocene. Warmth-adapted mollusk species such as Opeas striatissimum and Punctum orphana were found to have been associated with several deciduous tree taxa (e.g., Corylus, Quercus, and Pterocarya) in both the Holocene record and in the modern ecosystem (based on surveys of 356 surface-soil plots). This suggests there is a clear ecological interdependency between specific vegetation types and mollusk assemblages. As such, the long-term vegetation-mollusk fossil records highlight the indirect impacts of climate change on terrestrial invertebrate turnover via plant-derived food structure and habitat routes, with major implications for understanding how these ecosystems are likely to respond to future climate changes.

Phytoliths in the inflorescence of Poaceae plants can be of high taxonomic value in some archaeological contexts and provide insight into plant taxonomy and crop domestication processes. In this study, phytoliths in every inflorescence bract of 38 common Panicoideae weeds and minor crops in China were studied. Based on dissection of the inflorescence into different bracts using a treatment that retained the phytoliths anatomical position, observations of inflorescence phytoliths types and distribution were described in detail. We found that Interdigitating, Blocky amoeboid, Rectangular dentate, and Elongate dendritic with multi tent-like arch tops were of higher taxonomic value than the other types in our studied species. Both morphological and morphometric traits of the Interdigitating were summarized and compared with previous studies; the findings suggested that genus level discrimination of some Paniceae species could be reliable, and tribe/species level discrimination might be feasible. The phytoliths in the involucre of domesticated and wild type Coix lacryma-jobi provided insight into the domestication process of this plant. Our data also indicated that phytolith production in the inflorescence bracts might be under the genetic and molecular control of inflorescence development. Thus, the findings of this study could assist future studies in plant taxonomy and archaeobotany.

Phytolith radiocarbon dating can be traced back to the 1960s. However, its reliability has recently been called into question. Piperno summarized recent dating evidence, but most phytolith dating results from China were not included in the review because they are written in Chinese. Herein, we summarize and evaluate previous phytolith dating results from China. We also review recent debates on the nature and origin of phytolith-occluded carbon (abbreviated as PhytOC), as well as the older age of phytoliths retrieved from modern plants. We conclude that although PhytOC includes a small amount of old carbon absorbed from the soil, this carbon fraction has not always biased phytolith ages, indicating that in certain situations, phytoliths can be tried as an alternative dating tool in archaeological and paleoecological research when other datable materials are not available.

In the last decade, our understanding of rice domestication has improved by new archaeological findings using advanced analytical techniques such as morphological and morphometric analyses on rice grains, spikelet bases and phytoliths, and ancient DNA analysis on rice remains. Previous studies have considered the size of rice bulliform phytoliths as a proxy for tracking the domestication process. These phytoliths are often abundant and well preserved in sediments, and their shape is under the control of numerous genes, which may shift toward larger sizes by genetic mutation in domestication. Therefore, it has been assumed that the bulliforms of domesticated rice are usually larger than those of wild ones; however, morphometric data supporting this assumption are lacking in the literature, thereby requiring additional evidence to test its veracity. In this study, the vertical and horizonal lengths of bulliform phytoliths were measured in four rice species (domesticated Oryza sativa and wild Oryza rufipogon, Oryza officinalis, and Oryza meyeriana) from different regions of southern China. We found that the bulliform morphometric data of wild and domesticated rice overlapped and that there was no statistically significant difference between them. Therefore, bulliform size could not be used as a diagnostic indicator to distinguish domesticated rice from wild species and is a supporting rather than conclusive proxy for determining the domesticated status of rice in archaeological research. We further found that larger rice bulliform sizes likely occurred at the locations with higher temperature, precipitation, and water levels, indicating hydrothermal environment is an alternative factor influencing the size of rice bulliform phytoliths. For further archaeological use of an increasing size trend of bulliform phytoliths to reveal the process of rice domestication, we present some suggestions for controlling the influence of hydrothermal factors. Even so, the combination of bulliform phytolith size with other established criteria is strongly suggested to provide precise identification of wild and domesticated rice in future research.

The process of rice domestication has been studied for decades based on changing morphological characteristics in assemblages of both macroremains, such as charred seeds and spikelet bases, and microremains, such as phytoliths, esp. bulliform and double-peaked phytoliths. The applicability of these indicators in determining if a specific assemblage is wild or domesticated, however, is rarely discussed. To understand the significance of these indicators in the determination of domestication, we collected 38 archaeological samples from eight Neolithic sites, dating from 10-2ka BP, in the lower Yangtze River region to analyze and compare the changes of these different indicators over eight thousand years. The data demonstrate that the comprehensive analysis of multiple indicators may be the best method to study the process of rice domestication developed thus far. An assemblage of rice remains can be identified as domesticated forms if they meet the following criteria simultaneously: 1) the proportion of domesticated-type bulliform phytoliths is more than 73%; and 2) the proportion of domesticated-type rice spikelet bases is higher than 75%. Furthermore, we found that each indicator tends to change steadily and gradually over time, and each stabilized at a different time, suggesting that the characteristics of domesticated rice developed slowly and successively. Changes of multiple indicators during the period between 10,000-2,000 yr BP indicate that the process of rice domestication in the lower Yangtze River region lasted as long as ca. 6,000 years during the Neolithic, and can be divided into three stages with the turning points in the middle Hemudu-late Majiabang culture (6,500-5,800yr BP) and the late Liangzhu culture (4,600-4,300yr BP).

Detailed studies of the long-term development of plant use strategies indicate that plant subsistence patterns have noticeably changed since the Upper Paleolithic, when humans underwent a transitional process from foraging to agriculture. This transition was best recorded in west Asia; however, information about how plant subsistence changed during this transition remains limited in China. This lack of information is mainly due to a limited availability of sufficiently large, quantified archaeobotanical datasets and a paucity of related synthetic analyses. Here, we present a compilation of extensive archaeobotanical data derived from interdisciplinary approaches, and use quantitative analysis methods to reconstruct past plant use from the Upper Paleolithic to Middle Neolithic in China. Our results show that intentional exploitation for certain targeted plants, particularly grass seeds, may be traced back to about 30,000 years ago during the Upper Paleolithic. Subsequently, the gathering of wild plants dominated the subsistence system; however, this practice gradually diminished in dominance until about 6~5 ka cal BP during the Middle Neolithic. At this point, farming based on the domestication of cereals became the major subsistence practice. Interestingly, differences in plant use strategies were detected between north and south China, with respect to (1) the proportion of certain plant taxa in assemblages, (2) the domestication rate of cereals, and (3) the type of plant subsistence practiced after the establishment of full farming. In conclusion, the transition from foraging to rice and millet agriculture in China was a slow and long-term process spanning 10s of 1000s of years, which may be analogous to the developmental paths of wheat and barley farming in west Asia.

Bulliform phytoliths play an important role in researching rice origins as they can be used to distinguish between wild and domesticated rice. Rice bulliform phytoliths are characterized by numerous small shallow fish-scale decorations on the lateral side. Previous studies have shown that domesticated rice has a larger number of these decorations than wild rice and that the number of decorations ≥9 is a useful feature for identifying domesticated rice. However, this standard was established based on limited samples of modern rice plants. In this study, we analyzed soil samples from both wild and domesticated rice paddies. Results showed that, in wild rice soil samples, the proportion of bulliform phytoliths with ≥9 decorations was 17.46% ± 8.29%, while in domesticated rice soil samples, the corresponding proportion was 63.70% ± 9.22%. This suggests that the proportion of phytoliths with ≥9 decorations can be adopted as a criterion for discriminating between wild and domesticated rice in prehistoric soil. This indicator will be of significance in improving the application of fish-scale decorations to research into rice origins and the rice domestication process.

Mollusk remains are abundant in archaeological sites in the Guanzhong Basin of Northwestern China, providing good opportunities for investigations into the use of mollusks by prehistoric humans. Here we report on freshwater gastropod and bivalve mollusks covering the time interval from about 5600 to 4500 cal. yrs BP from sites of Mid-Late Neolithic age. They are identified as Cipangopaludina chinensis and Unio douglasiae, both of which are currently food for humans. The shells are well preserved and have no signs of abrasion. They are all freshwater gastropods and bivalves found in pits without water-reworked deposits and have modern representatives which can be observed in rivers, reservoirs, and paddy fields in the studied region. Mollusk shells were frequently recovered in association with mammal bones, lithic artifacts, and pottery. These lines of evidence indicate that the mollusks are the remains of prehistoric meals. The mollusk shells were likely discarded into the pits by prehistoric humans after the flesh was eaten. However, these mollusk remains may not have been staple food since they are not found in large quantities. Mollusk shell tools and ornaments are also observed. Shell tools include shell knives, shell reaphooks and arrowheads, whereas shell ornaments are composed of pendants and loops. All the shell tools and ornaments are made of bivalve mollusks and do not occur in large numbers. The finding of these freshwater mollusk remains supports the view that the middle Holocene climate in the Guanzhong Basin may have been warm and moist, which was probably favorable to freshwater mollusks growing and developing in the region.

The Peiligang Culture (9000-7000 cal. yr BP) in the Middle Yellow River region, North China, has long been considered representative of millet farming. It is still unclear, however, if broomcorn millet or foxtail millet was the first species domesticated during the Peiligang Culture. Furthermore, it is also unknown whether millet was cultivated singly or together with rice at the same period. In this study, phytolith analysis of samples from the Tanghu archaeological site reveals early crop information in the Middle Yellow River region, China. Our results show that broomcorn millet was the early dry farming species in the Peiligang Culture at 7800 cal. yr BP, while rice cultivation took place from 7800 to 4500 cal. yr BP. Our data provide new evidence of broomcorn millet and rice mixed farming at 7800 cal. yr BP in the Middle Yellow River region, which has implications for understanding the domestication process of the two crops, and the formation and continuance of the Ancient Yellow River Civilization.

Foxtail millet (Setaria italica) is one of the oldest domesticated cereal crops in Eurasia, but identifying foxtail millets, especially in charred grains, and differentiating it from its wild ancestor, green foxtail (Setaria viridis), in the archaeobotanical remains, is still problematic. Phytolithic analysis provides a meaningful method for identifying this important crop. In this paper, the silicon structure patterns in the glumes, lemmas, and paleas from inflorescence bracts in 16 modern plants of foxtail millet and green foxtail from China and Europe are examined using light microscopy with phase-contrast and a microscopic interferometer. Our research shows that the silicon structure of ΩIII from upper lemmas and paleas in foxtail millet and green foxtail can be correspondingly divided into two groups. The size of ΩIII type phytolith of foxtail millet is bigger than that from green foxtail. Discriminant function analysis reveals that 78.4% of data on foxtail millet and 76.9% of data on green foxtail are correctly classified. This means certain morphotypes of phytoliths are relatively reliable tools for distinguishing foxtail millet from green foxtail. Our results also revealed that the husk phytolith morphologies of foxtail millets from China and Eastern Europe are markedly different from those from Western Europe. Our research gives a meaningful method of separating foxtail millet and green foxtail. The implications of these findings for understanding the history of foxtail millet domestication and cultivation in ancient civilizations are significant.

Foxtail millet (Setaria italica) and Common millet (Panicum miliaceum) are the oldest domesticated dry farming crops in Eurasia. Identifying these two millets in the archaeobotanical remains are still problematic, especially because the millet grains preserve only when charred. Phytoliths analysis provides a viable method for identifying this important crop. However, to date, the identification of millet phytoliths has been questionable, because very little study has been done on their morphometry and taxonomy. Particularly, no clear diagnostic feature has been used to distinguish between Foxtail millet and Common millet. Here we examined the anatomy and silicon structure patterns in the glumes, lemmas, and paleas from the inflorescence bracts in 27 modern plants of Foxtail millet, Common millet, and closely related grasses, using light microscopy with phase-contrast and microscopic interferometer. Our research shows that five key diagnostic characteristics in phytolith morphology can be used to distinguish Foxtail millet from Common millet based on the presence of cross-shaped type, regularly arranged papillae, Omega-undulated type, endings structures of epidermal long cell, and surface ridgy line sculpture in the former species. We have established identification criteria that, when used together, give the only reliable way of distinguishing between Foxtail millet and Common millet species based on their phytoliths characteristics, thus making a methodological contribution to phytolith research. Our findings also have important implications in the fields of plant taxonomy, agricultural archaeology, and the culture history of ancient civilizations.