Reconstruction of the cropland cover changes in eastern China between the 10 century and 13 century using historical documents.

To evaluate and improve datasets of anthropogenic land cover change used in local and global climate models, great efforts were made to reconstruct historical land use, including the LandCover 6k project which dedicated to reconstructing human land use over the past 10,000 years. In this study, we utilized historical records, including taxed-cropland and cropland measurement areas, and data on the number of households in eastern China between the 10 century and 13 century in concert with coefficient calibration, model allocation, and per capita cropland estimation to reconstruct areas of provincial cropland for 22 provinces over five time periods. Our reconstructions indicate that total cropland areas of eastern China for AD 1000, 1066, 1078, 1162, and 1215 are 34.74 × 10 ha, 49.42 × 10 ha, 51.62 × 10 ha, 35.21 × 10 ha, and 51.21 × 10 ha, respectively. And the cropland area fluctuated because of dynasty shift and went through three phases. Cropland expansion and contraction mainly occurred in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers as well as the Huaihe River Basin, while in some regions far away from battlefields, including northeastern and southern China, cropland area expanded continuously throughout the study period.