Precipitation reconstruction since the last deglacial based on the stable carbon isotopic composition of a loess section in western Central Asia

• Published in: The Holocene
• Main Authors: Zhang, Dongliang, Feng, Zhaodong, Su, Chenjie, Li, Kaihui, Ma, Xuexi, Ma, Long, Zhao, Xinghua
• Other Authors: National Natural Science Grants, Youth Innovation Promotion Association of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Western Young Scholar Program-B of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Scientific Promotion Funding of the Prioritized Academic Discipline
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: SAGE Publications 2022
• Subjects: North Atlantic; North Atlantic oscillation
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/09596836221126134; https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/09596836221126134; https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/09596836221126134

The topography of the Tianshan Mountains and the Pamir Plateau strongly shapes the seasonality of precipitation in Central Asia (CA): cold-season (October-April) precipitation dominates western CA and warm-season (May-September) precipitation dominates eastern CA. The precipitation/moisture patterns between western and eastern CA are completely opposite at seasonal, decadal and centennial scale. However, the pattern contrasts for millennial or longer time scales remain unknown. In this study, we investigated the precipitation variations in western CA, as recorded in a 6.5-m loess section in southern Kazakhstan, which has accumulated since ~14.4 ka. According to the robust relationship between the surface soil organic matter δ 13 C and the climatic parameters, the δ 13 C signature is here considered as a precipitation proxy. The record reveals an overall decreasing precipitation before ~6.0 ka followed by an increasing trend afterward, being consistent with the previously reported precipitation records in western CA. The late-deglaciation precipitation in western CA is in phase with that in eastern CA at millennial scales, which are both driven by the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and the Siberian High.