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Holocene climate variations from Zhuyeze terminal lake records in East Asian monsoon margin in arid northern China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Hao Long ,
ZhongPing Lai ,
NaiAng Wang  and
Yu Li
Hao Long*
Affiliation:
Luminescence Dating Group, Key Laboratory of Salt Lake Resources and Chemistry, Qinghai Institute of Salt Lakes, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xining 810008, China College of Earth and Environment Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
ZhongPing Lai
Affiliation:
Luminescence Dating Group, Key Laboratory of Salt Lake Resources and Chemistry, Qinghai Institute of Salt Lakes, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xining 810008, China
NaiAng Wang
Affiliation:
College of Earth and Environment Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
Yu Li
Affiliation:
College of Earth and Environment Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
*
⁎Corresponding author. E-mail addresses:longhao@isl.ac.cn, lzugeolh@sina.com (H.Long).
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Abstract

Zhuyeze palaeolake is a terminal lake situated in the arid northern China in the East Asian monsoon margin. In order to examine the Holocene palaeoclimatic change in the East Asian monsoon margin, Qingtu Lake section (QTL) from Zhuyeze palaeolake is sampled in high resolution. Palaeoclimatic proxies such as grain size, carbonate, TOC, C/N and δ13C of organic matter, were analyzed; eleven 14C samples and six optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) samples were dated to provide chronological control. We also investigated the geomorphic features of lake shorelines in this area. The results show that the climate was warm and dry in early-Holocene (9.5–7.0 cal ka BP), cool and humid in mid-Holocene (7.0–4.8 cal ka BP), and increasingly drier in late-Holocene (since 4.8 cal ka BP). Comparisons of our records with other records in adjacent areas, as well as with the records in the Asian monsoon areas, suggested that changes in effective moisture was synchronous in East Asian monsoon marginal zone (i.e. the pattern of dry early-Holocene, humid mid-Holocene, and aridity-increasing late-Holocene), and that the moisture optimum during the Holocene was out-of-phase between Asian monsoon margin and Asian monsoonal dominated region, possibly due to the high temperature at that time.

Keywords

East Asian monsoon marginHolocene climate changeZhuyeze palaeolakeArid northern China
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 74 , Issue 1 , July 2010 , pp. 46 - 56
Copyright
University of Washington

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