Search Results (96)

Recent archaeological discoveries across the Aegean, Cyprus, and western Anatolia have renewed interest in pre-Neolithic seafaring and early island colonization. However, the environmental contexts that support such early coastal occupations remain poorly understood, largely due to the submergence of Pleistocene shorelines following post-glacial sea-level rise. This study addresses this gap through an integrated geoarchaeological investigation of the pre-Neolithic site of Ouriakos on Lemnos Island, northeastern Aegean (Greece), dated to the mid-11th millennium BCE. By reconstructing both the terrestrial and submerged paleolandscapes of the site, we examine ecological conditions, resource availability, and sedimentary processes that shaped human activity and site preservation. Employing a multiscale methodological approach—combining bathymetric survey, geomorphological mapping, soil micromorphology, geochemical analysis, and Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dating—we present a comprehensive framework for identifying and interpreting early coastal settlements. Stratigraphic evidence reveals phases of fluvial, aeolian, and colluvial deposition associated with an alternating coastline. The core findings reveal that Ouriakos was established during a phase of environmental stability marked by paleosol development, indicating sustained human presence. By bridging terrestrial and marine data, this research contributes significantly to the understanding of human coastal mobility during the Pleistocene–Holocene transition. Full article

The Maowusu Desert is still suffering from serious ecological and environmental security issues such as wind erosion and desertification, influenced by both natural and human factors. The amendment of aeolian sandy soil with soft rock material presents an effective erosion control strategy, leveraging the complementary structural and compositional properties of both materials to enhance soil stability and rehabilitate degraded environments. However, there are few studies that investigate the effect of soil surface electrochemical properties and particle interaction forces on the structural stability of compound soils with soft rock and sandy soil. This decade-long field study quantified the electrochemical properties and interparticle forces and their synergistic effects on structural stability across five soft rock-to-aeolian sandy soil blend volume ratios (0:1, 1:5, 1:2, 1:1, 1:0) within the 0–30 cm soil profile. The results showed that the soil organic matter (SOM), specific surface area (SSA), and cation exchange capacity (CEC) significantly increased with the incorporation of soft rock material. For five different proportions, with the addition of soft rock and the extension of planting years, the content of SOM increased from 5.65 g·kg⁻¹ to 11.36 g·kg⁻¹, the CEC varied from 4.68 cmol kg⁻¹ to 17.91 cmol kg⁻¹, while the σ₀ importantly decreased from 1.8 to 0.47 c m⁻² (p < 0.05). For the interaction force at 2.4 nm between soil particles, the absolute value of van der Waals attractive force increased from 0.10 atm to 0.38 atm, and the net force decreased from 0.09 atm to −0.30 atm after the incorporation ratios of soft rock from 0:1 to 1:1. There was a significant negative correlation between the resultant net force between the particles of compound soil and the SSA and CEC. These results indicate that the addition of soft rock material positively improves the surface electrochemical properties and internal forces between aeolian sandy soil particles, further enhancing its structural stability. This study establishes a foundational theoretical framework for advancing our mechanistic understanding of aeolian sand stabilization and ecosystem rehabilitation in the Mu Us Desert. Full article

The Chacopampean Plain is a major physiographic unit in Argentina, bounded by the Colorado River to the south, the Sierras Pampeanas and Subandinas to the west, and the Paraná River, Río de la Plata Estuary, and the Argentine Sea to the east. Its subsurface preserves sediments from the Miocene marine transgression, while the surface hosts some of the country’s most productive soils. Two main geomorphological domains are recognized: fluvial systems dominated by alluvial megafans in the north, and aeolian systems characterized by loess accumulation and wind erosion in the south. The southern sector exhibits diverse landforms such as deflation basins, ridges, dune corridors, lunettes, and mantiform loess deposits. Despite their regional extent, the origin and chronology of many aeolian features remain poorly constrained, as previous studies have primarily focused on depositional units rather than wind-sculpted erosional features. This study integrates remote sensing data, field observations, and a synthesis of published chronometric and sedimentological information to characterize these aeolian landforms and elucidate their genesis. Our findings confirm wind as the dominant morphogenetic agent during Late Quaternary glacial stadials. These aeolian morphologies significantly influence the region’s hydrology, as many permanent and ephemeral water bodies occupy deflation basins or intermediate low-lying sectors prone to flooding under modern climatic conditions, which are considerably wetter than during their original formation. Full article

Desert plants in arid regions are facing escalating challenges from global warming, underscoring the urgent need to predict shifts in the distribution and habitats of dominant species under future climate scenarios. This study employed the Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) model to project changes in the potential suitable habitats of three keystone desert species in Xinjiang—Halostachys capsica (M. Bieb.) C. A. Mey (Caryophyllales: Amaranthaceae), Haloxylon ammodendron (C. A. Mey.) Bunge (Caryophyllales: Amaranthaceae), and Karelinia caspia (Pall.) Less (Asterales: Asteraceae)—under varying climatic conditions. The area under the Receiver Operating Characteristic curve (AUC) exceeded 0.9 for all three species training datasets, indicating high predictive accuracy. Currently, Halos. caspica predominantly occupies mid-to-low elevation alluvial plains along the Tarim Basin and Tianshan Mountains, with a suitable area of 145.88 × 10⁴ km², while Halox. ammodendrum is primarily distributed across the Junggar Basin, Tarim Basin, and mid-elevation alluvial plains and aeolian landforms at the convergence zones of the Altai, Tianshan, and Kunlun Mountains, covering 109.55 × 10⁴ km². K. caspia thrives in mid-to-low elevation alluvial plains and low-elevation alluvial fans in the Tarim Basin, western Taklamakan Desert, and Junggar–Tianshan transition regions, with a suitable area of 95.75 × 10⁴ km². Among the key bioclimatic drivers, annual mean temperature was the most critical factor for Halos. caspica, precipitation of the coldest quarter for Halox. ammodendrum, and precipitation of the wettest month for K. caspia. Future projections revealed that under climate warming and increased humidity, suitable habitats for Halos. caspica would expand in all of the 2050s scenarios but decline by the 2070s, whereas Halox. ammodendrum habitats would decrease consistently across all scenarios over the next 40 years. In contrast, the suitable habitat area of K. caspia would remain nearly stable. These projections provide critical insights for formulating climate adaptation strategies to enhance soil–water conservation and sustainable desertification control in Xinjiang. Full article

Coal gangue is a fine-grained mineral with nutrient content, which can be used as a potential soil amendment. Nevertheless, current research on using coal gangue to improve soil water and support plant growth is still insufficient. In this study, coal gangue powder (CGP) was added to aeolian sandy soil. We compared the soil hydraulic properties and plant growth of original aeolian sandy soil (CK) and different CGP application rates (10% and 20%). The results indicated that the application of CGP transformed the soil texture from sandy to loamy, significantly reduced soil bulk density and saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks) values, altered the soil water characteristic curve, enhanced soil water-holding capacity, and increased plant-available water. Compared with the CK group, the emergence rate of alfalfa seeds increased from approximately 50% to over 70% after CGP application. During the growth process, CGP application significantly elevated the net photosynthetic rate, transpiration rate, and stomatal conductance of alfalfa leaves. Rapid fluorescence kinetics monitoring of leaves demonstrated that alfalfa treated with CGP had a higher efficiency in light energy utilization. However, the photosynthetic capacity of leaves did not improve as the CGP application rate increased from 10% to 20%, suggesting that excessive CGP addition did not continuously benefit plant gas exchange. In conclusion, CGP application can improve the soil hydraulic properties of aeolian sandy soil and support plant growth and development, which is conducive to reducing the accumulated amount of coal gangue, alleviating plant water stress, and promoting ecological restoration in arid mining areas. We recommend a 10% addition of coal gangue powder as the optimal amount for similar soils. Full article

Haloxylon ammodendron plays a pivotal role in combating aeolian desertification and restoring degraded arid ecosystems. Strategic afforestation protocols for this xerophytic species offer dual benefits in ecological stabilization and socioeconomic development, particularly in ecotonal zones between desert and oasis ecosystems, as exemplified by the Jilantai Salt Lake region. This investigation employs allometric scaling analysis to elucidate biomass allocation strategies in H. ammodendron plantations under three distinct silvicultural approaches: soil moisture retention afforestation, water flushing afforestation, and mechanical hole afforestation. Key findings demonstrate that water flushing afforestation treatment induced significant biomass enhancement (total biomass: 1718.69 ± 214.28 g), with phylloclade (photosynthetic branch) and vegetative organ biomass increasing by 29.03% and 60.34%, respectively, compared to conventional methods. Conversely, soil moisture retention afforestation preferentially promoted lignification processes, maximizing biomass allocation to structural components (stems: 15.2% increase) and reproductive structures (inflorescences: 22.7% elevation). Standardized major axis regression revealed differential scaling exponents among organ pairs under varying treatments (stem-phylloclade: 1.798; inflorescence-phylloclade: 1.752; vegetative-reproductive: 1.672; p < 0.001), indicating treatment-specific allometric allocation patterns. Notably, soil moisture retention afforestation induced lateral crown expansion through enhanced meristematic activity in secondary branches (p < 0.01), contrasting with the apical dominance observed in water flushing afforestation and mechanical hole afforestation specimens. These morphological divergences suggest resource allocation trade-offs between vertical exploration and horizontal exploitation strategies. The differential growth trajectories were strongly correlated with edaphic moisture redistribution patterns (R² = 0.83, p < 0.001), as quantified using soil water potential measurements. This study provides mechanistic insights into phenotypic plasticity responses to silvicultural interventions. These findings advance our understanding of allometric growth regulation in a psammophyte and establish an empirical basis for optimizing desert afforestation strategies in arid transitional ecotones. Full article

Soil nutrient buildup is a key process in nutrient-poor arid and semiarid regions. However, our knowledge of the factors that control soil nutrient buildup in these systems is still limited. An experiment was set up and carried out for five and a half years in order to investigate how precipitation and other site factors control soil nutrient buildup. Topsoil carbon (C), nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) derived from litter (soil nutrient buildup) were tracked twice a year at two sites differing in terms of climate and soils (Urat: arid and Naiman: semiarid, both in Inner Mongolia). Precipitation was manipulated at both sites to include seven precipitation levels: three reduced levels (−20, −40, and −60% with respect to the background), background (control), and three enhanced levels (+20, +40, and +60% with respect to the background). The dynamic buildup (i.e., amount of nutrients released among consecutive samplings) for all nutrients was controlled by precipitation (nonlinearly), site effects (lower buildup at the site dominated by aeolian pedogenesis), and seasonality (higher under warm conditions). However, the considered nutrients differed in the factor that most determined their buildup. Through studying the concurrent dynamics of litter decomposition and soil nutrient buildup, we can foresee that changes in precipitation and land degradation are most likely to affect the soil nutrient pools in these ecosystems. Full article

A nondestructive approach for accurate crop yield prediction at the field scale is vital for precision agriculture. Considerable progress has been made in the use of the spectral index (SI) derived from unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) hyperspectral images to predict crop yields before harvest. However, few studies have explored the most sensitive wavelengths and SIs for crop yield prediction, especially for different nitrogen fertilization levels and soil types. This study aimed to investigate the appropriate wavelengths and their combinations to explore the ability of new SIs derived from UAV hyperspectral images to predict yields during the growing season of spring maize. In this study, the hyperspectral canopy reflectance measurement method, a field-based high-throughput method, was evaluated in three field experiments (Wang-Jia-Qiao (WJQ), San-Ke-Shu (SKS), and Fu-Jia-Jie (FJJ)) since 2009 with different soil types (alluvial soil, black soil, and aeolian sandy soil) and various nitrogen (N) fertilization levels (0, 168, 240, 270, and 312 kg/ha) in Lishu County, Northeast China. The measurements of canopy spectral reflectance and maize yield were conducted at critical growth stages of spring maize, including the jointing, silking, and maturity stages, in 2019 and 2020. The best wavelengths and new SIs, including the difference spectral index, ratio spectral index, and normalized difference spectral index forms, were obtained from the contour maps constructed by the coefficient of determination (R²) from the linear regression models between the yield and all possible SIs screened from the 450 to 950 nm wavelengths. The new SIs and eight selected published SIs were subsequently used to predict maize yield via linear regression models. The results showed that (1) the most sensitive wavelengths were 640–714 nm at WJQ, 450–650 nm and 750–950 nm at SKS, and 450–700 nm and 750–950 nm at FJJ; (2) the new SIs established here were different across the three experimental fields, and their performance in maize yield prediction was generally better than that of the published SIs; and (3) the new SIs presented different responses to various N fertilization levels. This study demonstrates the potential of exploring new spectral characteristics from remote sensing technology for predicting the field-scale crop yield in spring maize cropping systems before harvest. Full article

This article is devoted to the study of the Quaternary aeolian sands of the boreal zone of north Asia. Using the example of the study reference sections of the Selenga Dauria (Western Transbaikalia), it was established that the activation of aeolian processes is determined by the complex interaction of natural and anthropogenic factors. Natural factors include neotectonic movements; wide distribution of alluvial and lacustrine-alluvial deposits; a sharply continental semi-arid climate; and forest-steppe and steppe vegetation. Among the anthropogenic factors, the leading ones are deforestation, plowing of land and construction of new settlements, roads and other line structures. The obtained radiocarbon dating of buried soils and coal from ancient fire pits indicates the activation of aeolian processes during the Holocene. The main sources for aeolian transport (winnowing) are sands located in the areas of river and lake beaches, floodplains and river terraces. Almost all aeolian sands of the boreal zone were formed as a result of short-range wind transport. They form mini-deserts unfixed by vegetation, with active aeolian processes, dunes, barkhans and deflationary basins. Aeolian swells and blowout basins characterize aeolian landscapes weakly fixed by vegetation. It is noted that aeolian deposits of the boreal zone of north Asia, in contrast to similar sands of the subtropical and tropic zones, consist of coarser-grained material. Medium- and fine-grained sands dominate their composition, which is polymineral and well-sorted. In subtropical and tropical deserts, they are predominantly monomineral, fine and fine-grained. At the same time, mainly minerals that are unstable to weathering (feldspars, plagioclases, pyroxenes and amphiboles) represent the mineralogical composition of the studied aeolian sands. Weathering-resistant minerals dominate the sands of classical deserts: quartz, leucoxene, ilmenite, epidote, zircon, garnets, tourmaline, rutile and others. Modern aeolian landscapes are a unique natural formation for the boreal zone of north Asia and can be successfully used for the development of ecotourism. Full article

Soil erosion has become an increasingly serious issue, drawing global attention. As one of the countries facing severe soil erosion in the world, China confronts significant ecological challenges. Against this backdrop, the country places great emphasis on soil conservation efforts, considering them a crucial component of ecological civilization construction. This study focuses on the carbon sink benefits of comprehensive soil conservation management in the loess hilly region and sandy slopes, using the Xiaonanshan Mountain small watershed in Youyu County, Shanxi Province, as a typical case for in-depth analysis. In terms of research methodology, an integrated monitoring approach combining fundamental data, measured data, and remote sensing data was developed. A comprehensive survey of the Xiaonanshan Mountain small watershed was conducted to categorize plant carbon pools and soil carbon pools, establish baseline scenarios, and utilize methods such as inverse distance spatial interpolation, sample calculation, and feature extraction to estimate forest carbon storage across different years and determine changes in soil and vegetation carbon storage. Simultaneously, data collection and preprocessing were carried out, including the gathering of fundamental data, field data collection, and internal data preprocessing. On this basis, a vegetation carbon storage model was constructed, and an assessment of soil carbon pool storage was conducted. The research results indicate that from 2002 to 2024, the continuous implementation of various soil conservation measures over 22 years has led to a significant increase in carbon storage within the Xiaonanshan Mountain small watershed. The vegetation carbon density of the entire small watershed increased from 14.66 t C/ha to 27.02 t C/ha, and the soil carbon density rose from 28.92 t C/ha to 32.48 t C/ha. The net carbon sink amount was 18,422.20 t C (corresponding to 67,548.08 t CO₂e in terms of carbon dioxide equivalent). Populus simonii and Pinus sylvestris var. mongholica significantly contribute to the carbon sink; however, due to partial degradation of Populus simonii, its net carbon sink amount is less than that of Pinus sylvestris var. mongholica. Additionally, the carbon sink capacity of the small watershed exhibits spatial differences influenced by conservation measures, with high carbon density areas primarily concentrated within the range of Populus simonii, while low carbon density areas are mainly found in shrub zones. The increase in carbon storage within the small watershed is primarily attributed to the contributions of vegetation and soil carbon storage, indicating that comprehensive soil erosion management has a significant carbon accumulation effect; moreover, the annual growth rate of vegetation carbon storage exceeds that of soil carbon storage, with the proportion of soil carbon storage increasing year by year. Furthermore, the vegetation carbon sink, soil carbon sink, and total carbon sink of the small watershed were separately calculated. In terms of benefit analysis, the Xiaonanshan Mountain small watershed offers ecological benefits such as increased forest coverage, carbon fixation and oxygen release, and biodiversity conservation; from an economic perspective, the value of carbon trading is substantial, promoting soil conservation and rural revitalization, with the total value of timber reaching 7.6 million yuan, of which the value of standing timber constitutes the largest proportion; social benefits include the improvement of environmental landscapes, stimulation of ecological tourism, and attraction of investment, with the Xiaonanshan Mountain Ecological Park receiving numerous visitors and generating significant tourism revenue. This research provides a theoretical basis and data foundation for comprehensive soil conservation management in project areas or small watersheds within the loess hilly and sandy slope regions, offering technical and methodological support for other soil conservation carbon sink projects in the area. Full article

The small Mediterranean islands, unique geographical places where coastlines and mountains converge due to volcanic genesis, are among the most threatened environments on Earth. Their marginality, which has historically led to their use as places of detention and punishment, coupled with the extreme climate and rugged geomorphology shaped by terracing practices, has resulted in the loss of systematic land management. This loss stems from the abandonment of cropland in favor of alternative activities and migrations, impacting essential ecosystem services such as the water cycle, soil fertility, and the cultural landscape. The need to counteract the land degradation in these vulnerable areas has been acknowledged for some Mediterranean small islands, including the UNESCO heritage site of Stromboli in the Aeolian Islands, Sicily, Italy—an especially captivating location due to its active volcano. The agricultural abandonment on terraces, intensively cultivated with olives groves and vineyards until the mid-20th century, has rendered the area highly fragile and susceptible to risks such as fires and soil erosion, particularly as a consequence of extreme weather events, as proven in 2022, which saw a destructive fire followed by storms. To mitigate the negative effects of hydrogeological disruptions, the implementation of integrated landscape management—managing ecosystems at the landscape level—has been proposed. Specifically, an agroforestry intervention, coupled with the restoration of dry stone walls, the shaping of soil slopes by recovering the traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), and the design of water-collecting devices incorporated with the traditional hydraulic knowledge, may be proposed as a strategic approach to minimize the soil erosion risks, adapt to climate change, and extensively restore the use of traditional agrobiodiversity to support the local economy and tourism. A pilot intervention by local stakeholders based on these principles is described as an emblematic agrobiodiversity-based landscape design project in a vulnerable area, aiming at the preservation of the cultural landscapes of the small Mediterranean islands. Full article

Humic acid (HA) is considered a promising soil amendment for improving soil fertility. However, the effects of HA application on the microbial community, especially in aeolian sandy soils of semi-arid regions, remain insufficiently elucidated. To address this gap, a field experiment was conducted to investigate the changes in soil properties, bacterial and fungal diversity, and community structure in a buckwheat field in the fourth year after a single application of lignite humic acid (L-HA) at 0 (L-HA0), 2 (L-HA1), 4 (L-HA2), and 6 (L-HA3) ton·ha⁻¹ in an aeolian sandy soil in Inner Mongolia, China. The results demonstrated that four years after L-HA application, there was a significant (p < 0.05) decrease in soil pH, accompanied by an increase in soil water content and nutrient levels, including organic matter and total N, available P, and K. Additionally, the application of L-HA enhanced microbial biomass C and N and stimulated enzyme activities, such as urease and invertase, with these effects being more pronounced at higher application rates (L-HA2 and L-HA3). However, HA addition did not significantly (p < 0.05) affect soil microbial biomass P or alkaline phosphatase activity. The L-HA amendment enhanced the α-diversity indices of soil bacteria but did not significantly (p < 0.05) affect soil fungal diversity. The addition of L-HA induced significant changes in the composition of the soil microbial community at both the phylum and genus levels, with significant variability in microbial responses observed across the different L-HA application rates. The incorporation of L-HA notably enriched the composition of bacterial and fungal communities at the phylum level, particularly those involved in carbon cycling, including the bacterial phyla Proteobacteria and Actinobacteriota and the fungal phyla Ascomycota and Rozellomycota. At the genus level, higher L-HA application rates, specifically L-HA2 and L-HA3, exerted statistically significant (p < 0.05) effects on most bacterial and fungal genera. Specifically, these treatments increased the abundance of bacterial genera, such as Rokubacterium and fungal genera, including Plectosphaerella, Tausonia, Talaromyces, and Clonostachys. Conversely, the relative abundance of the bacterial genera Vicinamibacter and Subgroup_7, as well as the fungal genus Niesslia, was significantly reduced. Redundancy analysis (RDA) indicated that bacterial community compositions were closely associated with soil parameters, such as available P (AP), microbial biomass carbon (SMC), microbial biomass nitrogen (SMN), microbial biomass phosphorus (SMP), and invertase, while all tested soil parameters, except for alkaline phosphatase, significantly influenced the fungal community structure. Given that the changes in these soil parameters were highly correlated with the amounts of L-HA addition, this suggests that the impacts of long-term L-HA amendment on the soil bacterial and fungal communities were linked to alterations in soil physicochemical and biological properties. Full article

Machine learning methods have improved in recent years and provide increasingly powerful tools for understanding landscape evolution. In this study, we used the random forest method based on Google Earth Engine to evaluate the desertification dynamics in northern China from 1995 to 2020. We selected Landsat series image bands, remote sensing inversion data, climate baseline data, land use data, and soil type data as variables for majority voting in the random forest method. The method’s average classification accuracy was 91.6% ± 5.8 [mean ± SD], and the average kappa coefficient was 0.68 ± 0.09, suggesting good classification results. The random forest classifier results were consistent with the results of visual interpretation for the spatial distribution of different levels of desertification. From 1995 to 2000, the area of aeolian desertification increased at an average rate of 9977 km² yr⁻¹, and from 2000 to 2005, from 2005 to 2010, from 2010 to 2015, and from 2015 to 2020, the aeolian desertification decreased at an average rate of 2535, 3462, 1487, and 4537 km² yr⁻¹, respectively. Full article

Conservation tillage technology possesses substantial potential to enhance agricultural production efficiency and tackle issues such as wind erosion and land degradation in semi-arid regions. The integration of no-tillage and straw mulching technologies in the conventional aeolian semi-arid agricultural zones of western Liaoning, China, has led to notable improvements in crop yield and soil quality. However, a comprehensive assessment of the mechanisms and kinetics involved in soil nutrient variations is yet to be conducted. During a two-year study period, we assessed four tillage systems in the aeolian semi-arid regions of Northern China: no-tillage with full straw mulching (NTFS), no-tillage with half straw mulching (NTHS), no-tillage without straw mulching (NT), and conventional tillage (CT). The investigation focused on examining nutrient conditions, enhancing photosynthetic activity, and increasing maize yield while improving water use efficiency (WUE). Our findings emphasize the beneficial impact of combining no-tillage and straw mulching on enhancing soil water retention, resulting in a notable rise in soil moisture levels during the crucial growth phases of maize. This approach also positively influenced soil nutrient levels, particularly in the 0–20 cm layer, fostering an environment conducive to maize cultivation. In terms of ecological benefits, no-tillage with straw mulching curtailed soil sediment transport and wind erosion, notably at 30–40 cm heights, aiding in the ecological protection of the region. The yield and WUE were substantially higher under NTFS and NTHS than under CT, with NTHS demonstrating the most significant gains in yield (14.5% to 16.6%) and WUE (18.3% to 21.7%) throughout the study period. A TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution) analysis confirmed NTHS as the optimal treatment, achieving the highest scores for soil water, nutrient availability, wind erosion control, maize photosynthesis, yield, and WUE, thus emerging as the most effective conservation tillage strategy for sustainable agriculture in aeolian semi-arid regions. Full article

The stable carbon isotope composition of total organic matter (δ¹³C_org) has been utilized in aeolian sediments, serving as an indicator for reconstructing terrestrial paleoenvironments. The Qinghai Lake (QHL) Basin is a climate-sensitive region of significant importance in paleoclimatic reconstruction. However, the reconstructed climatic variations based on δ¹³C_org in aeolian sediments in the QHL Basin in the northeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) are lacking, and their paleoclimatic significance remains poorly understood. By conducting δ¹³C_org measurements on the Niaodao (ND) aeolian profile near QHL, we reconstructed the paleoclimate changes of 11 ka–present. The variation range of the δ¹³C_org values in the ND profile indicated the terrestrial ecosystems were not the sole contributor to lacustrine organic matter. The δ¹³C_org values are an indicator of historical temperature changes in the study area, exhibiting similar trends with the reconstruction of Chinese summer temperatures, East Asian air temperature, global temperature, and Northern Hemisphere summer insolation at 37° N. The temperature increased with high frequency and amplitude oscillations, with strong aeolian activity and low total organic carbon accumulation during the Early Holocene. The temperature was maintained at a high and stable level, with the weakest aeolian activity and intensified pedogenesis during the Middle Holocene. The temperature decreased at a high rate, with renewed aeolian activity and weak pedogenesis during the Late Holocene. Full article