Abnormally low precipitation-induced ecological imbalance contributed to the fall of the Ming Dynasty: new evidence from tree rings
Feng Chen (),
Hadad Martín,
Xiaoen Zhao,
Fidel Roig,
Heli Zhang,
Shijie Wang,
Weipeng Yue and
Youping Chen
Additional contact information
Feng Chen: Yunnan University
Hadad Martín: Laboratorio de Dendrocronología de Zonas Áridas CIGEOBIO (CONICET-UNSJ), Gabinete de Geología Ambiental (INGEO-UNSJ)
Xiaoen Zhao: Yunnan University
Fidel Roig: IANIGLA-CCT CONICET-Universidad Nacional de Cuyo
Heli Zhang: Yunnan University
Shijie Wang: Yunnan University
Weipeng Yue: Yunnan University
Youping Chen: Yunnan University
Climatic Change, 2022, vol. 173, issue 1, No 13, 16 pages
Abstract:
Abstract Climate change has played a crucial role in the subrogation of Chinese dynasties. In particular, the Ming-Qing transition coincided with the rapid decrease in precipitation and the sharp deterioration of agroecological conditions in northern China under the cold conditions brought on by the Little Ice Age. Here, we present a new precipitation reconstruction (June-April) for northern Chinese Loess Plateau since 1590 CE. The reconstruction was derived from a tree-ring width chronology of Platycladus orientalis, and made it possible to quantitatively assess the period of megadroughts during the late Ming Dynasty, with high resolution. Our analysis showed that these extreme drought events have been unprecedented in China for the last 500 years, and precipitation variation could be linked to ENSO activities. The environmental imbalance caused by these megadroughts magnified the negative impacts of the climate on agriculture and society, an important reason for considering these phenomena as catalysts for the demise of the Ming Dynasty.
Keywords: Fall of the Ming Dynasty; Chinese Loess Plateau; Tree rings; Precipitation reconstruction; NDVI variations; Climate-human interaction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:
Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10584-022-03406-y Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:climat:v:173:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1007_s10584-022-03406-y
Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/10584
DOI: 10.1007/s10584-022-03406-y
Access Statistics for this article
Climatic Change is currently edited by M. Oppenheimer and G. Yohe
More articles in Climatic Change from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().