Coupling Relationship Between Agricultural Civilization And Ecological Degradation In Qin Zhidao Area

Since the origin of civilization,ecosystems have undergone long historical changes through past thousands of years.During the constant changes in climate and long-term blind transformation of land use types,destruction of natural vegetation and ecosystems have been come up with higher vulnerability and less biological diversity,as well as service functions.The problem of ecosystem degradation in China is particularly becoming serious.It has always been an important scientific issue that academics and government pay attention to it.However,the existing researches rarely studied the degenerative process and driving mechanism of coupling the climate and human activities in the ecosystem of China particularly on the millennial scale and regional scale.During the time of Xuanyuan emperor,there was Huaxia civilization in the Yellow River basin which gradually formed nomadic and agricultural civilization.The dry land agricultural area dominated by the Loess Plateau became a battlefield where the two cultures collide and blended into each other.As time was going on,the nomadic civilization began to regress and the farming civilizations were continued to invade north.Under the dual pressures of climate change and human activities,it eventually led to the degradation of ecosystem in China.The area of Qin Zhidao is precisely its main carrier of information.Due to its unique geographical location,the area of Qin Zhidao is the place where agricultural and nomadic civilization exchange with each other and is also a multi-ethnic mixture.It is also connected with northern ethnic minority and Central Han Chinese people which has had an impact on their living customs and cultures.In the meantime,there are varied landforms in the Qin Zhidao area consist of lakes,wetlands plains,forests,deserts and alpine grasslands.Undoubtedly,it is very important for the study of Qin Zhidao.Based on the historical data analysis,landscape methods of remote sensing,social investigation and field observation,this paper makes a comprehensive analysis of the Qin Zhidao area located in the Loess Plateau and the Erdos Plateau.Through different timescales,we analyzed the degradation of ecosystems in the Qin Zhidao region via climate change and human activities.Over the development of local agriculture and animal husbandry as well as their ecological zoning,we deepened our understanding about the process of ecosystem degradation in China and put forward feasible suggestions to address the ecosystem degradation in this area.The main conclusions of the study are as follows:1.In the ancient times,the Great Wall and the boundary between the nomadic people and the Central Plains Han nationality were playing an important historical role in the division of farming civilization and nomadic civilization.Therefore,we regard the location of Great Wall and boundary as a farming pastoral ecotone in various dynasties.Compared with the present agro-pastoral ecotone,it is found that the farming civilization and nomadic civilization were constantly changing in the course of history though continuous attack on north was general trend by farming civilization while the nomadic civilization was continuing to diminish the south.2.Study about the historical environment changes in Jingbian County and the survey environment in the area of Qin Zhidao,demonstrated that the farming civilization has begun to destroy the ecological environment from the distant ancient times.3.By calculating the changes of NDVI during the three periods of 2000,2007 and 2014,it is exhibited that the vegetation coverage of the area of Qin Zhidao has increased in the past decades,but the vegetation cover density is reduced.4.The respondents who have breeding techniques or planting techniques and the more labor force in the family are more conducive to the protection of the ecological environment.The older and the lower the education level of the farmer,the higher the number of sheep owned in the family damage the protection of the ecological environment.5.In choosing a lifestyle,respondents who have a high number of sheep are more willing to choose a nomadic lifestyle.The respondents who have more per capita arable land are more willing to choose a farming lifestyle.After thousands of years of historical evolution,nomadic people have indicated originally nomadic way of life which is now gradually converged to the settlement.6.Through the investigation of the cultural customs of the three generations of the Mongolian people,it is shown that their grandparents were more perfect than their parents to retain the traditional culture and custom,and also their parents were better than the next generation.7.The Han people of the Central Plains,originally under the rule of agricultural civilization,chose planting in their production activities.At the same time,Han people believe that planting industry ranks first in the proportion of their household income.The ethnic minorities previously ruled by nomadic civilization chose aquaculture in their production activities.At the same time,ethnic minorities believe that the aquaculture industry ranks first in the proportion of household income.