Climate, Vegetation and Human Land-Use Interactions on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Through the Holocene

The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is renowned for its geomorphologic diversity and high sensitivity to climatic changes and human disturbance. These relationships vary markedly across the region, shaped by factors such as the elevation, vegetation cover, water distribution, climate variability and the history of human settlement and land use. This chapter presents an overview of Holocene environmental evolution and human settlement history across the region, based on an assessment of the key literature on palaeoenvironmental conditions (e.g. glacial records, lacustrine strata, river deposits, aeolian (sand dune) histories) and analyses of Palaeolithic and Neolithic relics. A summary of climate-vegetation-human activities, relationships, interactions and evolution is provided. Climate changes are shown to be key drivers of regional variability in vegetation and hydrological patterns. It is very likely that long-term grazing activities have brought about a pronounced transition to grazing-adapted ecosystems in many grassland areas across the region. An overview of the human settlement history includes assessment of Dadiwan, Yangshao, Majiayao and Qijia cultures, and their associated agriculture (grazing) economies.