毛乌素沙地现代景观格局形成时间探讨

he causes and processes of the historical desertification of the Mu Us sandy land continue to be debated because of the simultaneous impacts of climate and human factors. With a combination of the analysis of a sedimentary profile in the southwest Mu Us sandy land and historical records, this paper discussed the processes of historical desertification of the Mu Us sandy land. The results present that, though climate fluctuated many times in history, the onset of the modern landscape of the Mu Us sandy land should be attributed to the desertification occurring at the end of the Ming dynasty. Considering that the desertification lasted too long time and was not coincident with the climate change, the authors suggest that the human activities in last 150 years should accelerate the development of this phase of desertification.