Journal
REGIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE
Volume 11, Issue 4, Pages 869-882Publisher
SPRINGER HEIDELBERG
DOI: 10.1007/s10113-011-0224-y
Keywords
Historical documents; Northeast China; Vegetation pattern
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Funding
- U.S. Department of Energy
- China Ministry of Science and Technology
- Ministry of Science and Technology of China [2010 CB951801, 2010CB950102]
- National Nature Science Foundation [41001122]
- State-Sponsored Study Abroad Programs (SSSAP)
- China Scholarship Council (CSC)
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Historical vegetation antedates current anthropogenic land use. It can therefore be used to reveal land use/cover changes due to human activities. We collected 197 records from Chinese historical documents, including gazettes, government files, private literature, and travel notes, to reveal vegetation status during the late seventeenth century to early twentieth century across Northeast China. The results indicate that woodland and grassland were the dominant landscapes, whereas swamps accounted for a small area. Woodland was composed of needleleaf deciduous forest, broadleaf deciduous forest, and mixed needleleaf and broadleaf forest. Mixed forest occupied the largest area. This forest type covered most of the Greater Khingan Range, Lesser Khingan Range, and Changbai Mountains. Grassland occupied the Songnen Plain, Liao River Plain, and Inner Mongolia Plateau, whereas swamps covered nearly the entire Sanjiang Plain. In addition, the data revealed that most current cropland was converted from grassland in the Northeast Plain, whereas a small area of cropland was converted from woodland and swamp.
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