Seminar Speaker: Liangcheng Tan, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Host: Liang Yi, School of Ocean and Earth Science
Abstract: Arid Central Asia (ACA), with its diverse landscapes of high mountains, oases, and deserts, hosted the central routes of the Silk Roads that linked trade centers from East Asia to the eastern Mediterranean. Ecological pockets and ecoclines in ACA are largely determined by local precipitation. However, little research has gone into the effects of hydroclimatic changes on trans-Eurasian cultural exchange. Here, we reconstruct precipitation changes in ACA. With gradually increasing precipitation after the megadrought, settlement of peoples in the oases and river valleys may have facilitated the opening of the oasis routes, “prehistoric Silk Roads”, of trans-Eurasian exchange.
Bibliography:
Liangcheng Tan received his Ph.D. degree in Quaternary Geology at Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IEECAS) in 2009. Since then, he has worked in IEECAS as an assistant professor, an associate professor, and a full professor.
Research Interests:
high-resolution climate proxies in speleothems
Holocene climate change
Impacts and human adaption
Anthropocene environment change
