Environmental conditions leading to the formation of Holocene soil layers in the Northern Taklimakan Desert,Tarim Basin,Northwest China

Radiocarbon‐dated palaeontological remains and bedding features suggests that climatic changes in the northern Taklimakan Desert since the beginning of the Holocene can be divided into four stages: (i) 12 000–10 000 BP, a cool–to temperate–dry climate resulting in apparent alluvial–fluvial and weak aeolian activities; (ii) 10 000–8000 BP, a dry cold climate, resulting in large‐scale sand dune activity under regional desert expansion; (iii) 8000–3000 BP dry, warm climate, with a decreased area of shifting sand and the fixation of many sand dunes; (iv) 3000 BP to present, rising aeolian activity resulting in sandstorms, under the combined influence of climatic warming and excessive exploitation of land and water resources. Holocene deposits from profiles in the Northern Taklimakan Desert consist mainly of fine‐grained aeolian sand and silty clay. The fine aeolian sand was formed from re‐sorting of aeolian sand during the cold period of the Holocene, while the silty clay was formed by flood deposition in the Holocene warm period. The desert and desert steppe arboreal species and high CaCO₃ content of the warm period strata suggest that the Holocene climate in the area, although generally dry, varied between warm/dry and cold/dry, and, especially in recent times, has become increasingly dry. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.