990 resultados para Summer monsoon onset


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Glaciers in west China are the sources of the major great rivers in Asia, and the solid water resources are crucial to China and South Asia. Black carbon (BC) results in very complex climate effects not only in the atmosphere, but accelerates the melting after its deposit on the surface of snow/ice. As the main distributed area of glaciers in China, the Tibetan Plateau (TP) and Xinjiang region are abutted by South Asia, Central Asia, and Russia, and east China, and the atmospheric environment would be influenced by the BC emitted from these regions. Whereas, the BC’s temporal and spatial distributions for concentration in the mid and top troposphere in west China, its transport, and its radiative forcing after deposited on the snow/ice surface are not well understood at the present. In the field, we collected samples from surface snow, snow pits, ice core, and aerosol in the glaciers, analyzed BC content mainly by the thermo-oxidized method in the laboratory, and discussed temporal and spatial distributions for BC concentrations in glaciers, the transport, and its impacts on the environment. Several conclusions were derived as follows: 1_Spatial distribution and the impact on albedos for BC concentrations in snow/ice: the BC concentrations in the surface snow for the investigated glaciers could be placed in areas, the Tianshan Mountains > the central TP > the Pamirs > the Qilian Mountians > the Himalayas. This distribution could be attributed to the elevation of the glaciers, the topography of the TP, and more regional emissions. Probably significant impacts on the albedos of the glacier surface could be caused by BC deposits, and the estimated reduced albedos on the glaciers are 9.8% (the Zhadang glacier), 8.7% (the Miao’ergou Riverhead No.3 glacier), and 6.8% (the Kuitun River Haxilegen No.48 glacier), and 6.2% (the Dongkemadi glacier), and 5.3% (the La’nong glacier), and 4.2% (the Muztagata glacier), etc. 2_The temporal variance of BC concentrations in ice of the East Rongbuk Glacier (ERG) and its climatic implications: major cations and anions (e.g., SO42- and Ca2+) concentrations in aerosols during summer monsoon seasons showed their close relationships with the sources of air masses, in which the variance of SO42- concentrations suggested the atmospheric environment over the ERG was significantly influenced by the aerosols from South Asia. BC record based on an ice core suggested its deposit was dominantly transported by monsoons in summers and by westerlies in other seasons, and the BC from South Asia in summers dominated the varying trend of its concentrations in the ice core and caused higher concentrations in summers than those in other seasons. In the past 50 yrs, BC concentrations showed fluctuations, whereas showed an increasing tread in the most recent decade, and exceeded 50 μg kg-1 in the summer of 2001; correspondingly, the radiative forcing caused by BC showed an increasing trend since 1990s, and exceeded 4.5 W m-2 in the summer of 2001. 3_Cabonaceous aerosols in the Nam Co region: organic carbon (OC) concentration accounted for ~95% and BC for ~5% in the total carbonaceous aerosol concentration, which was significantly influenced by summer precipitations. OC was dominantly derived from fossil fuel burning and BC from both fossil fuel and biomass burning. Trajectory analysis and aerosol optical depth suggested the atmospheric environment in the Nam Co region was most probably influenced by the emissions from South Asia. The potential source regions of air pollutants in the Nam Co regions in summers might be Bangladesh and east India, and in winters might be the Indo-gangetic basin. The scavenging ratio of atmospheric BC by rainfalls was less than those at other sites. West China is a less-developed region for industry, where BC concentrations in the atmosphere and snow/ice could be significantly influenced by the emissions from the abutted regions with rising industries (South Asia, Central Asia, and Russia). For example, snow/ice BC concentrations in the glaciers of the Parmirs, the Tianshan Mountains, and the Qilian Mountains in the northeast margin of the TP might be more influenced by the emissions from Centrial Asia (transported by the westerlies), those in the glaciers of the Himalayas might be more influenced by the emissions from South Asia (transported by the monsoons and the westerlies), and atmospheric carbonaceous aerosols might also be more influenced by the emissions from South Asia (transported by the monsoons and the westerlies). The BC concentrations in some glaciers might cause significant impacts on the albedos for the glaciers, and therefore enhanced the radiative forcings, for example, the ERG. The research on the relationships among atmospheric and snow/ice BC and its radiative forcing, variance of snow cover, mass balance of glaciers, and climate forcing would be needed in future.

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The loess-paleosol sequences in China are among the best continental records of paleoclimate changes. Although numerous sedimentological and geochemical studies have contributed greatly to the understanding of past climate changes during this period, it is still necessary to decipher more details through investigating these sequences using various approaches including biological analyses. In this study, we analyze the mollusk fossil assemblages preserved in the upper part of the Xifeng section, from the fifth loess layer (L5) to the Holocene soil (S0), with the sampling interval of 10 cm. The main results and conclusions obtained are as follows: 1. A continuous terrestrial mollusk fossil record, covering the past 500 ka, has been obtained from the Xifeng loess-paleosol sequence, which provides important biological data for the study of paleoenvironmental changes in the Loess Plateau and its comparison with marine record during this period. A total of 475 mollusk assemblages were studied, and twenty-one species have been identified among the 210,000 mollusk individuals counted. Among these species, most have modern representatives and are found in previous terrestrial mollusk studies of Chinese loess-paleosol sequences. Thus, they can be grouped into cold-aridiphilous, thermo-humidiphilous, oriental, and cool-humidiphilous ecological groups, as defined by previous studies. 2. Comparison of mollusk assemblages between the last five glacials and four interglacials and Holocene shows very different climate conditions. The warmest period occurred at MIS 11, MIS 5e, and Holocene, respectively. The coldest period is the Last Glacial Maximam, rather than the MIS 12. 3. Our mollusk record provides insight into the climate conditions in the Loess Plateau during the MIS 11, interpreted as the closest analog to the present interglacial. S4 paleosol, equivalent of MIS 11, developed under two major different climate regimes: ranging from the very warm–humid early phase to the mild-cool late interval. Furthermore, a cooling spell has been documented at the interglacial optimum, reflecting unstable climate conditions. The early warm–humid conditions lasted over 30 ka, supporting that MIS 11 is a unique long interglacial in the Quaternary climate history. 4. Comparison of MIS 11 and Holocene climates based on the mollusk species compositions indicates major differences. The climate at the early part of MIS 11 was warmer and more humid than during the Holocene optimum period, but the conditions during the late part of MIS 11 were similar to or cooler than late Holocene. Our study indicates that the extent of warming during the Holocene might be significantly less than the conditions that prevailed during the early part of MIS 11 interglacial period. 5. Two strong summer monsoon events were observed during the MIS 12 and MIS 10. They correspond to the maximam values of insolation gradient between low and high latitudes, suggesting a causal linkage. 6. Our study, combined with the previously investigated Luochuan land snail record, reveals that the climate in the Loess Plateau during MIS 3 experienced three stages: relatively warm, humid climate prevailed during MIS 3c, relatively cold, dry climate during MIS 3b, and relatively warm-humid period during MIS 3a. Climate at this time fluctuated frequently in Luochuan, and changed from warm-cool to cold-dry in Xifeng. Our results reveal that the relatively warm-humid climate during MIS 3c may be resulted from an increasing insolation gradient controlled by obliquity. Our result also reveals that obvious regional difference existed in the Loess Plateau during MIS 3. A greater climate gradient occurred during this time compared with today’s climate pattern in the Loess Plateau.

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The Badain Jaran Desert lies on the Alashan Plateau in western Inner Mongolia. Because of huge dunes, permanent lakes and on the northern fringe of the Asian summer monsoon, the Badain Jaran Desert has been drawing attentions of many experts. And they have made great progress in dune’s geomorphology, botany in desert, paleoclimate change and other study areas. We analyzed environmental isotope and ion chemistry in lakes and groundwater of the desert and southeastern area, and collected some other evidences from 14C dating, fossils and archeology. According to chemical analysis, we discuss the difference spatial character of ion chemistry and environmental isotope in lakes and groundwater of the desert and adjacent. Contrasting with ion chemistry and isotope results in other arid area, we argue origin of groundwater and lakes in the desert area, and get a preliminary understanding of desert lakes’ evolution during Holocene. Some main conclusions were drawn as follows: 1. It has a obvious difference in hydrophysical parameters between lakes and groundwater in the desert and margin. 2. The results of ion analysis show that Na+ and Cl- are dominant in most lakes of the desert. Meanwhile, Na+ 、Cl- and HCO3- are dominant in groundwater of the desert and adjacent, and alsoMg2+、Ca2+、and NO3- have more percentage than in lakes. 3. Owing to different solubilities, the conten of main ions in water varies with the content of TDS. Whereas the content of TDS is over 100 g/L, the content of SO42-、HCO3-、Mg2+and Ca2+ in lakes descend. 4. The result of isotope analyzing indicate the lakes and groundwater in southeast desert have a similar vaporing trend with the groundwater in the southeast margin of the desert. It imply there would have some kind of contact between groundwater in margin and lakes of southeast desert. 5. Contrasting with isotope results of groundwater in other arid area, it show that the groundwater in the desert and Yabulai area should be phreatic water which have a low water table. Therefore, we conclude that the groundwater in southeast part of the desert and southern margin mainly are recharged by precipitation of local abundant rainfall and groundwater of low mountain of southern area. 6. And all of these evidences, which are different from salinity, the content of CO32- and geological data, show that the bigger northern lake group and southeastern lake group in the desert have different groundwater replenishing system because a fold belt lie between of the two group lakes and obstruct them in landform. and HCO3- 7. The 14C dating results of fossil and lacustrine deposits show that there maybe have a wider range of shoreline during early and middle Holocene than today. 8. By the discovery and study of some pieces of pottery and fine stoneware, we preliminary conclude that there maybe have some certain amount of early human activities in the Badain Jaran Desert.

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Longgang maar area in Northern China is a sensitive region to the change of Asian summer monsoon, and also an important area to understand the dynamic mechanism of global paleoclimate and paleoenvironment changes. The grain-size and major element analyses have been carried out on the samples of the core from Erlongwan maar for reconstruction of high –resolution paleoenvironment change in Northeast China. Subsampling was done by 1cm interval for the upper 19.39m. Connecting multi-proxies (including,dry density, total organic carbon, etc.), we have acquired the following conclusions: 1、 the coarse fraction in grain size reflects the intensity of surface flow, and thus the intensity of monsoon rainfall in the region. 2、 the 19.39-m-long sediment covering the past 33ka, can be divided into 3 periods: The last glacial stage (33-18.5ka B.P.):summer monsoon rainfall was low, temperature was minimum and climatic deteriorated. The last deglaciation (18.5-10 ka B.P.): temperature rose and surface water inflow increased. But it experienced a period, a Younger Dryas-like climatic deterioration. Holocene(10-0 ka B.P.):summer monsoon rainfall reached maxima and varied at century scale and major millennial scale. 3、 the climatic variability in the whole Holocene is positively correlated with Atlantic ice-rafting events and there is an influence of sunspot activity in the late Holocene

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The fluvio-lacustrine sequence in the Nihewan Basin is an important archive of late Pliocene-Pleistocene climate and environment changes in temperate northern China, which provides excellent sources of early human settlements in high latitude East Asia. The recent years have witnessed a considerable progress in the paleomagnetic dating of its stratigraphy, which has notably increased our understanding of a series of important issues such as the early human occupation in the Old World, the infilling history of the Nihewan Basin, and the chronological sequence of the Nihewan faunas. Up to now, the long-term paleoenvironmental changes directly retrieved from this basin, which might influence the evolution and expansion of early humans in the Nihewan Basin, are still poorly constrained, although several paleoclimatic records have been retrieved from this area. In this study, a combined mineral-magnetic and geochemical investigation was carried out on the fluvio-lacustrine sequence from the Dachangliang section at the eastern margin of the basin in order to reveal its rock magnetic and environmental magnetic characteristics and its implications for early human evolution in East Asia. The major findings and conclusions are listed as the following: First, there is an increased cooling coupled with an intensified aridification recorded in the fluvio-lacustrine sequence of the Dachangliang section. The cooling is related to an up-section decrease in propensity to chemical weathering as inferred from an increase in low-field susceptibility after cycling to 700 °C. Close to 700 °C, reacting chlorite is providing the iron source for newly formed very fine-grained ferrimagnetic minerals which enhances the susceptibility signal. The reactivity of chlorite after annealing at temperatures above 600 °C is documented with X-ray diffraction. Second, degrees of chemical weathering in the Nihewan Basin are further estimated by clay mineralogy (i.e. chlorite and illite contents and chlorite/illite ratio) and a series of major element proxies (i.e. Na2O/Al2O3 versus K2O/Al2O3 diagram, Al2O3-(CaO + Na2O)-K2O ternary diagram (A-CN-K), chemical index of alteration (CIA), (CaO + Na2O + MgO)/TiO2, (CaO + Na2O + MgO + K2O)/(TiO2 + Al2O3), CaO/Al2O3 and CaO/TiO2). The up-section decrease in propensity to chemical weathering suggested by the aforementioned rock mangetic measurement is further confirmed by these geochemical analyses. Combining the chemical weathering records from the Nihewan Basin, Chinese Loess Plateau, South China Sea and eastern China, we find that the consecutive decreasing trend in chemical weathering intensity during the late Cenozoic is ubiquitous across China. This pattern may result from a long-term decreasing East Asian summer monsoon and increasing East Asian winter monsoon, and thus a consecutive increasing of aridification and cooling in Asia during the Quaternary. Furthermore, the chemical weathering intensity increased from South China to North China during the Quaternary, in line with the decreasing East Asian summer monsoon and increasing East Asian winter monsoon and thus the gradually intensified aridification and cooling from South China to North China. Third, a combined mineral-magnetic and geochemical investigation provides evidences that the large-amplitude alterations of concentration of magnetic minerals mainly result from preservation/dissolution cycles of detrital magnetic minerals in alternately oxic and anoxic depositional environments. The preservation/dissolution model implies that the high-magnetic and low-magnetic cycles of this sedimentary sequence represent glacial and interglacial climate cycles, respectively. This contribute significnatly to our understanding of the link between climate and magnetic properties. Finally, the paleoclimatic implications of these rock magnetic and geochemical characteristics significantly increase our understanding of the general setting of early humans in high northern latitude in East Asia. We propose that the cold and dry climate may have contributed significantly to the expansion and adaptation of early humans, rather than bringing hardship, as is often thought. The relationship between magnetic properties and climate possibly provides valuable information on the climatic context of the Paleolithic sites in the basin, especially whether the occupation occurred during an interglacial or glacial period.

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Atmospheric dust as an important factor for climate feedbacks is mainly derived from and drove by the aeolian activities of the semi-arid regions in Asia. Therefore, reconstructing the history of aeolian activities in this region has a great significance in understanding the dynamics of past and future climate changes. This paper made a systematical sedimentology, geochemisty and high-resolution chronology analysis on the sediments from the Xiarinao Lake, which located in Hunshandake Desert, Inner Mongolia, and compared with the meteorological records for identifying the indicator of aeolian activities and climate changes. Based on above work, the evolution history of the aeolian activities and climate changes since 11,000 a BP was reconstructed and the dynamics of the aeolian activities and climate changes in the Hunshandake Desert was discussed. The indicator of aeolian activities was established through the comparison of the clastic and chemical records with the meteorological registers in recent 50 years: 1. The sediments of Xiarinao Lake are mainly derived from eaolian clastic materials and composed of two major components: one is the sand fraction (<4 ) similar to the composition of sand dunes, the other is the silt fraction (>4 ) similar to the atmospheric dust. The sand content and the median grain size, particularly the sand content, show a close association with the intensity of wind, indicating that the particle-size composition of the sediments reflect the variations of the aeolian activities. 2. The proportion of soluble salts relative to the total carbonates in the sediments was correlated to the arid degree registered in meteorological records, suggesting that arid degree might be associated with changes of wind speed and the relative proportion of soluble salts to the total carbonate could be used as the indicator of aridity. 3. The δ18O of authigenic calcite in the Xiarinao Lake show a well correlation with both the atmosphere precipitation and variation of the moisture indicated by the concentrations of soluble salts, suggesting that δ18O of anthigenic calcite is a reliable indicator of humidity. Based on above studies, the evolution history of the aeolian activities and climate changes since 11,000 a BP was reconstructed. At the same time, their association and underlying dynamics was discussed: 1. The evolution history of the eaolian activity was reconstructed by the sand content and median grain size. The result showed that aeolian activities had experienced several different climate periods in the Holocene: the aeolian activities fluctuated with a 500-year cycles during the interval from 10,900 to 8200 a BP; no significant aeolian activities had been developed from 8200 to 6300 a BP; during the interval of 6300 to 2600 a BP, sand content and media grain size had increased gradually, the sand content increased from about 5% to 25%, indicating the intensity of aeolian activity increased in the Hunshandake Desert; since 2600 a BP, intensity of aeolian activity has become stronger and activated the sand dunes. 2. The relative arid degree indicated by the proportion of soluble salts relative to the total carbonate show that both the wind speed and dry degree had being increased since 11,000 a BP. During the interval of 10900 to 6300 a BP, no detectable soluble salt was found in the sediments, indicating the humidity condition; the proportion increased to 20% from 6300 to 4200 a BP, showing the climate became drier; the little change of proportion (20%) suggest that the climate was relative stable during the interval of 4200 to 2600 a BP; after 2600 a BP, the proportion increased, showing the climate became further dry. 3. The δ18O evolution of the lake water was established through analysis of authigenetic calcite δ18O for revealing the variations of relative effective humidity in the Hunshandake Desert. δ18O maintained around -6 ‰ during the interval of 10900 to 8200 a BP, showing the climate was a little dry relative to that of the whole Holocnene; in the period of 8200 to 6300 a BP, δ18O had the most negative values, indicating that it was the most humid interval in Holocene; from 6300 to 4200 a BP, δ18O increased from about -7.5 ‰ to about -3 ‰ gradually, suggesting increased aridity; since 4200 a BP, the climate has become stable and dry. On the whole, the records in this study show that the variation of the relative humidity and aridity is consistent with that of summer monsoon in the Hunshandake Desert. The relationships among the grain size, soluble salts relative content, and the authigenic calcite δ18O indicate aeolian activities is controlled by the aridity in the studied area, and the increased aeolian activities is closely associated with the temperature changes under the relative dry condition. The high wind speed under the low temperature leads to the increased aeolian activity, and the temperature change associated with the aeolian activities might be related with the perturbations of the Siberian High Pressure.

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In this study, 172 mollusk assemblages from the Weinan loess section in the southeast of Loess Plateau, China, were identified quantitatively at relative high resolution. The results show: 1) the history and processes of paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental changes in Weinan since the last 70 ka; 2) the characteristics of climatic changes during the period of the last glacial maximum (LGM); 3) the spatial pattern of paleoclimate variations at the south and middle parts of the Loess Plateau during the LGM period; 4) the timing of the last deglaciation and the return event of rapid climate change during the last deglaciation. The main conclusions are as follows: 1) 172 mollusk samples taken from the uppermost 9 m deposits cover the past 70 ka, which were sampled at the internals of 5 cm for S_0, 3 cm for L_(1-1) and L_(1-2), and 10 cm for L_(1-3), L_(1-4) and L_(1-5). Author analyzed quantitatively all individuals including broken pieces of snail shells, percentages of 15 species identified from 172 samples. Three main groups were determined according to the ecological requirement of each taxon. Based on the variations of three ecological groups and typical ecological species, The author intended to reconstruct the history of and processes of climate and environment since the last 70 ka in the Weinan region. The climate and environment in this region experienced the following changes: relative warm and humid stage from 67.5-20.3 cal. ka B.P., a period of forest-steppe or steppe developed; cold and arid stage from 20.3-15.5 cal. ka B.P., a dry steppe period, later wetter and colder; cold and humid period once time from 15.5 to 12.3 cal. ka B.P., a typical steppe or forest-steppe stage; cold and humid again from 12.3 cal. ka B.P. to 8.2 cal. ka B.P., a tropical steppe stage; warm and humid climate, a forest-steppe developed. 2) The climate during the period of the last glacial maximum (LGM) in Weinan was characterized by a general cold-humid condition, represented by occurrence of a number of the cool-humidiphilous mollusk species such as Gastocopta amigerella and Vallonia cf. pulchella in the section. 3) Comparison of the variations in abundance of Puncture orphana at Weinan with those at Luochuan and Changwu sections suggests that the summer monsoon intensity influenced differently at the three regions during the LGM period. The Weinan was weaker summer monsoon impact during all the period, the Luochuan was influenced occasionally, and Changwu was only a very short time affected, which indicated it might be located at the western margin of the summer monsoon influence during that period. 4) The ratio of thermo-humidiphilous mollusk group to cold-aridiphilous one shows an increase tendency at about 15 cal. ka B.P., reflecting the climate warming after the deglaciation in Weinan, which is approximately corresponding to the timing of warming period of the last deglaciation, found in the East Atlantic Ocean, the South China Sea and the Loess Plateau (indicated by the phytolith study). 5) A remarkable decrease in the number of thermo-humidiphilous and cool-humidiphilous mollusk species from 12.7 - 11.6 cal. ka B.P. indicates a cooling in climate and might be the reflection of the Younger Dryas event in Weinan. 6) Variations in the ratios of thermo-humidiphilous mollusk species to cold-aridiphilous ones reflect the climate instability in Holocene. There were four warm-humid periods (10-8.1 cal. ka B.P., 6.9-6.1 cal. ka B.P., 5.2-2.6cal. ka B.P., 1.6cal. ka B.P. to the present ) and three relative cold-arid periods (8.1-6.9 cal. ka B.P., 6.1-5.2 cal. ka B.P., 2.6-1.6 cal. ka B.P.), showing about a 1,000 year climatic oscillation.

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The loess-paleosol sequence in China is one of the best archives for studying paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic processes. The loess deposits in the coast of the Bohai Sea are suitable for the study of aridification in the northern China during glacial periods (fig.2-1). In this paper, stratigraphy was correlated by using magnetic susceptibility, grain size, and thermoluminence (TL) and accelerater mass spectrometer (AMS) ~(14)C ages. Based on the loess records, an interpretation has been made for paleoenvironmental changes on the coast of the Bohai Sea during the last glacials. The results of magnetic susceptibility, grain size, biostratigraphy, TL and ~(14)C dating, suggest that the loess-paleosol sequence in the coast of the Bohai Sea is discontinuous. The loess deposits correlated with the marine δ~(18)O stage 2 are usually absent in some profiles. Also, the thickness of the loess deposits in the same period varied significantly in different sections. In the coast of the Bohai Sea, the higher magnetic susceptibility corresponds to the finer grain size, consistent with the results of the Loess Plateau. It is indicated that the changes in magnetic susceptibility and grain size may record the paleoclimatic fluctuations of the last glacial. Although the loess deposits during the last glacial have been slightly altered by slope runoff, they have still remained main characters as the representative loess deposits of the Loess Plateau. During the last glacial, the less accumulation rate in the coast of the Bohai Sea is similar to that of the desert-loess transition zone in the northwestern Loess Plateau, and the all section contain high concentrations of sand (>60μm), indicate that the aridification in the Bohai Sea occurred during the glacial. But the changes in sand content of loess deposits along a north-south transect of the Bohai Sea and the changes of magnetic susceptibility implicate that desertification might not occur in the shelf of the Bohai Sea during the last glacial. The frequent fluctuations of summer monsoon during the marine δ~(18)O stage 4 are demonstrated by magnetic susceptibility, frequency-dependent susceptibility and the abundance of foraminifera. 46 genera, 71 species of foraminifera were identified from 138 loess samples. Almost all of the foraminifera are present in the last glacial loess, but the distribution patterns of foraminifera show significant temporal changes. The results of magnetic susceptibility, grain size and XRD indicate that not only sea-level changes had influences on foraminifera abundance, but also variations in sediment flux by rivers when sea-level drops might control the abundance of foraminifera. In addition, the diversity and exquitability of the foraminifera suggest that the frequent fluctuations of foraminifera fossil abundance during the marine δ~(18)O stages could be partly attributed to leaching. In summary, the changes in foraminifera of abundance related to the paleoclimatic variations, and the aridification extends to the coast of the eastern China during the last glacial.

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The past two decades have witnessed an unprecedented growth of interest in the palaeoenvironmental significance of the Pleistocene loess deposits in northern China. However, it is only several years ago that the Tertiary red clay sequence underlying Pleistocene loess attracted much attention. One of the major advances in recent studies of eolian deposits on the Loess Plateau is the verification of the eolian origin for the Tertiary red clay sediments. The evidence of the eolian origin for the red clay is mainly from geochemical and sedimentological studies. However, sedimentological studies of the red clay deposits are still few compared with those of the overlying loess sediments. To date, the red clay sections located near Xifeng, Baoji, Lantian, Jiaxian, and Lingtai have been studied, with an emphasis on magnetostratigraphy. These sections have a basal age ranging from ~4.3 Ma to ~7.0 Ma. The thickness of the sections varies significantly, depending perhaps on the development of local geomorphological conditions and the drainage system. Although the stratigraphy of the red clay sections has been recorded in some detail, correlation of the red clay sequences has not yet been undertaken. Geological records (Sun J. et al., 1998) have shown that during glacial periods of the Quaternary the deserts in northem China were greatly expanded compared with modern desert distribution. During interglacial periods, desert areas contracted and retreated mostly to northwestern China because of the increase in inland penetration of monsoonal precipitation. According to pedogenic characteristics of the red clay deposits, the climatic conditions of the Loess Plateau is warmer and wetter generally in the Neogene than in the late Pleistocene. Panicle analyses show that grain size distribution of the red clay sequence is similar to that of the paleosols in the Pleistocene loess record, thus implying a relatively remote provenance of the red clay materials. However, the quantitative or semiquantitative estimates of the distance from the source region to the Loess Plateau during the red clay development remains to be investigated. In this study, magnetostratigraphic and sedimentological studies are conducted at two thick red clay sequences-Jingchuan and Lingtai section. The objectives of these studies are focused on further sedimentological evidence for the eolian origin of the red clay, correlation of red clay sequences, provenance of the red clay, and the palaeoclimate reconstruction in the Neogene. Paleomagnetic studies show that the Jingchuan red clay has a basal age of 8.0 Ma, which is 1 million years older than the previously studied Lingtai section. The Lingtai red clay sequence was divided into five units on the basis of pedogenica characteristics (Ding et al., 1999a). The Jingchuan red clay sequence, however, can be lithologically divided into six units according to field observations. The upper five units of the Jingchuan red clay can generally correlate well with the five units of the Lingtai red clay. Comparison of magnetic susceptibility and color reflectance records of four red clay sections suggests that the Lingtai red clay sequence can be the type-section of the Neogene red clay deposits in northern China. Pleistocene loess and modem dust deposits have a unimodal grain-size distribution. The red clay sediments at Jingchuan and Lingtai also have a unimodal grain-size distribution especially similar to the paleosols in the Pleistocene loess record. Sedimentological studies of a north-south transect of loess deposits above S2 on the Loess Plateau show that loess deposits had distinct temporal and spatial sedimentary differentiation. The characteristics of such sedimentary differentiation can be well presented in a triangular diagram of normalized median grain size, normalized skewness, and normalized kurtosis. The triangular diagrams of the red clay-loess sequence at Lingtai and Jingchuan indicate that loess-paleosol-red clay may be transported and sorted by the same agent wind, thus extending the eolian record in the Loess Plateau from 2.6 Ma back to about 8.0 Ma. It has been recognized that during the last glacial maximum (LGM) the deserts in northern China had a distribution similar to the present, whereas during the Holocene Optimum the deserts retreated to the area west of the Helan Mountains. Advance-retreat cycles of the deserts will lead to changes in the distance of the Loess Plateau to the dust source regions, thereby controlling changes in grain size of the loess deposited in a specific site. To observe spatial changes in sedimentological characteristics of loess during the last glacial-interglacial cycle, the texture of loess was measured along the north-south transect of the Loess Plateau. Since the southern margin of the Mu Us desert during the LGM is already known, several models of grain size parameters versus the minimum distance from the source region to depositional areas were developed. According to these semiquantitative models, the minimum distance from the source region to Lingtai and Jingchuan areas is about 600 km during the Neogene. Therefore the estimated provenance of the Tertiary red clay deposits is the areas now occupied by the Badain Jaran desert and arid regions west of it. The ratio of the free iron to total iron concentration attests to being a good proxy indicator for the summer monsoon evolution. The Lingtai Fe_20_3 ratio record shows high values over three time intervals: 4.8-4.1 Ma, 3.4-2.6 Ma, and during the interglacial periods of the past 0.5 Ma. The increase in summer monsoon intensity over the three intervals also coincides with the well-developed soil characteristics. It is therefore concluded that the East-Asia summer monsoon has experienced a non-linear evolution since the late Miocene. In general, the East Asia summer monsoon was stronger in Neogene than in Quaternary and the strongest East Asia summer monsoon may occur between 4.1 and 4.8 Ma. The relatively small ice volume and high global temperature may be responsible for the strong summer monsoon during the early Pliocene.

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Carbon is an essential element for life, food and energy. It is also a key element in the greenhouse gases and therefore plays a vital role in climatic changes. The rapid increase in atmospheric concentration of CO_2 over the past 150 years, reaching current concentrations of about 370 ppmv, corresponds with combustion of fossii fuels since the beginning of the industrial age. Conversion of forested land to agricultural use has also redistributed carbon from plants and soils to the atmosphere. These human activities have significantly altered the global carbon cycle. Understanding the consequences of these activities in the coming decades is critical for formulating economic, energy, technology, trade, and security policies that will affect civilization for generations. Under the auspices of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), several large international scientific efforts are focused on elucidating the various aspects of the global carbon cycle of the past decade. It is only possible to balance the global carbon cycle for the 1990s if there is net carbon uptake by terrestrial ecosystems of around 2 Pg C/a. There are now some independent, direct evidences for the existence of such a sink. Policymarkers involved in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UN-FCCC) are striving to reach consensuses on a 'safe path' for future emissions, the credible predictions on where and how long the terrestrial sink will either persist at its current level, or grow/decline in the future, are important to advice the policy process. The changes of terrestrial carbon storage depend not only on human activities, but also on biogeochemical and climatological processes and their interaction with the carbon cycles. In this thesis, the climate-induced changes and human-induced changes of carbon storage in China since the past 20,000 years are examined. Based on the data of the soil profiles investigated during China's Second National Soil Survey (1979-1989), the forest biomass measured during China's Fourth National Forest Resource Inventory (1989-1993), the grass biomass investigated during the First National Grassland Resource Survey (1980-1991), and the data collected from a collection of published literatures, the current terrestrial carbon storage in China is estimated to -144.1 Pg C, including -136.8 Pg C in soil and -7.3 Pg C in vegetation. The soil organic (SOC) and inorganic carbon (SIC) storage are -78.2 Pg C and -58.6 Pg C, respectively. In the vegetation reservoir, the forest carbon storage is -5.3 Pg C, and the other of-1.4 Pg C is in the grassland. Under the natural conditions, the SOC, SIC, forest and grassland carbon storage are -85.3 Pg C, -62.6 Pg C, -24.5 Pg C and -5.3 Pg C, respectively. Thus, -29.6 Pg C organic carbon has been lost due to land use with a decrease of -20.6%. At the same time, the SIC storage also has been decreased by -4.0 Pg C (-6.4%). These suggest that human activity has caused significant carbon loss in terrestrial carbon storage of China, especially in the forest ecosystem (-76% loss). Using the Paleocarbon Model (PCM) developed by Wu et al. in this paper, total terrestrial organic carbon storage in China in the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) was -114.8 Pg C, including -23.1 Pg C in vegetation and -86.7 Pg C in soil. At the Middle Holocene (MH), the vegetation, soil and total carbon were -37.3 Pg C, -93.9 Pg C and -136.0 Pg C, respectively. This implies a gain of-21.2 Pg C in the terrestrial carbon storage from LGM to HM mainly due to the temperature increase. However, a loss of-14.4 Pg C of terrestrial organic carbon occurred in China under the current condition (before 1850) compared with the MH time, mainly due to the precipitation decrease associated with the weakening of the Asian summer monsoon. These results also suggest that the terrestrial ecosystem in China has a substantial potential in the restoration of carbon storage. This might be expected to provide an efficient way to mitigate the greenhouse warming through land management practices. Assuming that half of the carbon loss in the degraded terrestrial ecosystem in current forest and grass areas are restored during the next 50 years or so, the terrestrial ecosystem in China may sequestrate -12.0 Pg of organic carbon from the atmosphere, which represents a considerable offset to the industry's CO2 emission. If the ' Anthropocene' Era will be another climate optimum like MH due to the greenhouse effect, the sequestration would be increased again by -4.3 - 9.0 Pg C in China.

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The study of biogenic proxy of tropical and subtropical regions provides important evidence about the process and history of vegetation and environmental changes, and is of globally importance for understanding the dynamic mechanism of paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental changes. The sediments from the Huguangyan Maar lake in Guangdong Province offer a continuous high-resolution record of the past 55 ka about environmental and vegetational changes. The studies of chronology, and physical, chemical environmental proxies have provided much important information about the paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic histories. The phytolith, a new biogenicl proxy, has been used to determine the nature and types of plants in this area since the last 55 ka. This study presents a preliminary result about the characteristics of phytolith shapes, the variations of the fossils assemblages, and their significance for environmental changes. Moreover, the author probes the process of special specie evolution and their relationship to climatic parameters. The history of fire has been reconstructed based on the variations in charcoals. The main results and conclusions include: 28 types of phytoliths from 233 samples have been identified. Their environmental meanings are investigated in detail. Based on the variations in phytolith associations, the history and process of climatic and environmental changes in the last 55 kaBP have been established for this region. Climatic changes experienced eight intervals during this period, showing the variations of hot-humid to cool-try climate in the ten thousands years scale, and a shorter dry-hot climate condition in millennial scale. The history of palm plant has been established in this region. Two peaks appeared from 55-39 ka and since the Holocene. Plants in Bambusoideae have been growing in this area all the period, representing the impact of the East Asian summer monsoon. Bamboo plants have similar tendency in their abundance to palm plants, but with a lag of 1-2 ka BP. Panicoideae plants, the representative of C4 plants, have 6 flourishing periods occurred at 54.5, 44, 41.5, 32.5, 14, and 10 kaBP, respectively, reflecting 6 times short-term arid events. Charcoal record from the Huguang Marr lake reveals the history of nature fire, that mostly happened in dry period of last glacial from 55-10 kaBP, centered at 50-45, 40-35, 30-25, and 20-15kaBP, showing about a cycle of 10,000 years.

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Snow chemistry research helps to found the basis of studying ice cores. Samples of fresh snow and snow pits were collected from East Rongbuk Glacier on the north slope of Mt. Qomolangma during October, 2002. Major soluble ions (Na~+, NH_4~+, K~+, Mg~(2+), Ca~(2+), Cl~-, NO_3~- and SO_4~(2-)) andδ~(18)O were detected for analysis. Source analysis showed that major sources contributing to the snow chemistry in Mt. Qomolangma region are remote Asian dust and salt lake dust, sea-salt aerosols from Indian monsoon, local rock-mineral dust, human activities and natural atmospheric procedures. Principal factor analysis indicated that high-concentration group was dominated by continental dust with little oceanic source, indicating continental or local precipitation, while the low group dominated by oceanic aerosols indicated oceanic precipitation. Local mineral dust was a minor a source characterized mainly by Ca~(2+), Mg~(2+) contribution. Ammonia related mainly with continental dusts and nitrogen-circulation processes in the atmosphere, it also had a peculiar source should be seasonal agriculture activities in the south Asia. Nitrate showed bad correlations with other ions for its special chemical characteristics. δ~(18)O and major soluble ions displayed obvious seasonal variations. The summer precipitation had very low ion loadings and relatively lower heavy oxygen isotope from the Indian Ocean with occasionally ion peaks formed by local evaporation. While the winter and spring precipitation had high ion loadings and δ~(18)O value for the great amount of continental dust and evaporated vapors. Frequent fluctuations of δ~(18)O and ion concentration occur during the transitional period, indicating alternated precipitations by various air mass types. Ion concentration in snow from the Qomolangma region is comparable with from the Antactica, representing relatively pure background of atmospheric environment on earth. While the high concentration is close to the glaciers' located near the major sources of Asian dust. Compared with the snow chemistry of South Slope of Mt. Qomolangma, the North Slope has lower sea-salt ion concentration during summer monsoon and higher concentration of all major ions during pre- and post-monsoon period due to it's special geophysical location.

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Geochemical analyses have been carried out on the samples taken from the last 250 ka wind-blown loess-paleosol sequences at Huanxian, Xifeng, Changwu, and Lantian in central Chinese Loess Plateau. The result shows: 1) that major changes in chemical composition of the loess-paleoso! sequences are due to leaching and reprecipitation of carbonates, and resulted from dust grain size changes rather than chemical weathering of silicates; 2) that Si/Ti, Si/AI, and Si/Fe ratios can be used as a proxy of dust deposition intensity, and Na/AI ratio can also be used as indicator of climatic changes in genera! rather than of the summer monsoon intensity. Our results show that chemical composition was controlled by dust deposition and weathering, and imply changes of climate and environment in the Loess Plateau during last 250,000 years.

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A continuous long (224m) and high-resolution core TY2 was recovered from paleo-maar-lake Tianyang, tropical South China. Based on the diatom records of the upper 130-m core, this paper focuses on exploring climate change and the lake evolution history in tropical South China during the past 240ka. The most typical and unique characteristics of the diatom assemblages is that, Aulacoseira granulata was dominant or absolutely dominant species (80-90%) during most parts of the 130-m core, while Cyclotella stelligera var. tenuis and Fragilaria construens var. venter were subdominant species in only limited parts of the lower and upper core, respectively. Time scale is always the biggest problem for the study of TY2 core, so although diatom is seldom used for establishing time scale, here we attempt this by correlating the diatom-reconstructed temperature sequence with the time scale of ODP core 806B from Equatorial Western Pacific. Verified by the few most reliable ages from TY2 core and the parallel core TYl, a rather reasonable and reliable time scale was established. 01S 7/6 falls at the depth of 100m (ca. 194kaBP), OIS 6/5 at 75m (ca. 132kaBP), OIS 5/4 at 46m (ca. 75kaBP), OIS 4-3 at 35m (ca. 60kaBP). Qualitative and quantitative environmental reconstructions are made on the basis of diatom assemblage ecotype and EDDI dataset. Correlation of diatom-reconstructed temperature and moisture changes of Core TY2 with pollen-reconstructed temperature and rainfall sequence of Core TYl proves that the results are quite consistent in most periods. Thus the reconstruction results from diatom are quite reliable, and probably have a much higher resolution than pollen results. Combined with lithological and magnetic susceptibility variations, the diatom analysis reveals that, the general climate in tropical South China during the past 240ka was warm and wet. On the time scale of glacial-interglacial, warm and wet, cool and dry are not always synchronous. It was relatively warm-wet during the penultimate interglacial, cool-dry during the penultimate glacial, warm-dry during the last interglacial, and cooler-drier during the last glacial. In contrast, on the time scale of subglacial-subinterglacial scales, warm and dry, cool and wet corresponds very obviously, showing very clear 21-23 ka precession cycle. Analysis also shows that, the water of Tianyang paleo-maar-lake was generally warm, turbulent, turbid, meso-trophic, slightly alkaline, low conductivity and fresh during the past 240 kaBP, with small variations in some parts. Tianyang paleolake experienced shallow to semi-deep lake in OIS7d, open shallow lake in OIS7c-OIS5b, shallow coastal lake in OIS5a-OIS4c, swamp in OIS4b, and then completely dried up in OIS3c. The lake evolution was mainly controlled by temperature and precipitation changes in tropical China. While temperature and precipitation changes were probably controlled by the migrations of monsoon rainband and the evaporation rate, which was in turn controlled by the evolution of East Asian monsoon. Therefore, when the summer monsoon was strongest the climate was warm-dry, when stronger the climate was warm-wet; when the winter monsoon was strongest the climate was cool-dry, stronger cool-wet. This mechanism caused the warm-dry sub interglacial and cool-wet subglacial climate in the tropical South China.

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In this study we examined samples of sandy sediments along the north-south transects crossing the Taklimakan Desert, the Badain Jaran Desert and the Hunshandake Sandy Land respectively. The grain size was measured via dry sieving, and the carbonate content by means of an Eijkelkamp instrument. The analyses of grain size and carbonate contents show: (1) The sand grains of the Badain Jaran Desert are coarsest and best sorted, this should be associated with the strongest usual wind among these three regions. (2) The different desert have its special wind condition in their own regions. The Badain Jaran Desert and the Taklimakan Desert both show that the wind is getting weaker from north towards south, but the Hunshandake Sandy Land have the similar wind stress from north towards south. (3) The frequency curves of the sandy sediments from the Badain Jaran Desert show a kind of distinct double peaks, presumably associated with the alternative transportations of summer and winter monsoons in the north boundaries of the summer monsoon. (4) There are great differences of the carbonate contents among these three regions, this maybe associated with the humidity, the humidity of Hunshandake Sandy Land is the best, and the one of the Taklimakan Desert would be the worst among them. Analyses of The three profiles about grain size and carbonate contents show: (1) From 8ka BP, the winter-monsoon was getting weaker, and the summer-monsoon accordingly became stronger, and about 1 ka later, the winter-monsoon was getting stronger again. (2) In the stage of the profiles, there maybe show two circles of dry and wet climate, and the climate changes in those three regions show the similar trend.