Asynchronous Holocene optimum of the East Asian monsoon

The spatial and temporal distribution of summer monsoon precipitation (or effective moisture) during the Holocene has been reconstructed on the basis of geological data, including lake levels, pollen profiles, and loess/paleosol records. In addition, the summer (July) precipitation increment, effect...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Quaternary Science Reviews
Main Authors: An, ZS, Porter, SC, Kutzbach, JE, Wu, XH, Wang, SM, Liu, XD, Li, XQ, Zhou, WJ
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD 2000
Subjects:
Physical Geography
Geology
LAST 130,000 YEARS
LOESS PLATEAU
AFRICAN MONSOON
MIDDLE HOLOCENE
NORTH-ATLANTIC
CENTRAL CHINA
CLIMATE
SIMULATIONS
MODEL
BP
Geography
Physical
Geosciences
Multidisciplinary
Indian
North Atlantic
Online Access:http://ir.ieecas.cn/handle/361006/11826
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0277-3791(99)00031-1
Description
Summary:The spatial and temporal distribution of summer monsoon precipitation (or effective moisture) during the Holocene has been reconstructed on the basis of geological data, including lake levels, pollen profiles, and loess/paleosol records. In addition, the summer (July) precipitation increment, effective precipitation, and monsoon strength index have been obtained from numerical modeling experiments. Both geological data and numerical modeling indicate that the Holocene optimum, as defined by peak East Asian summer monsoon precipitation, was asynchronous in central and eastern China, reaching a maximum at different times in different regions, e.g., ca. 10,000-8000 yr ago in northeastern China, 10,000-7000 yr ago in north-central and northern east-central China, ca. 7000-5000 yr ago in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and ca. 3000 yr ago in southern China. In southwestern China the maximum appeared ca. 11,000 yr ago, but probably was related to the maximum landward extension of the Indian summer monsoon. The regional shift in the maximum precipitation belt from northwest to southeast over the past 10,000 yr is interpreted as a response to changing seasonality related to orbital forcing of the climate. The southeastward shift of the East Asian summer monsoon maximum is consistent with the progressive weakening of the summer monsoon as the summer solar radiation anomaly decreased progressively through the Holocene and the East Asian monsoon index declined, while the early maximum in southwestern China matches the maximum of the Indian monsoon index. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

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