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A preliminary quantitative reconstruction of precipitation in southern Mu Us sandy land at margin of Asian monsoon-dominated region during late Quaternary
*Corresponding author: Lu Huayu, Professor, E-mail:huayulu@nju.edu.cn
Author: Chen Yingyong, PhD, specialized in land surface process and environment change. E-mail:chenyingyong2007@163.com
Received date: 2013-12-12
Accepted date: 2014-06-17
Online published: 2015-03-15
Supported by
National Natural Science Foundation of China, No.41321062;No.41371203
The Global Changes Program of China, 2010CB950203
The Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions, The Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, No.1082020904
Copyright
We present the first quantitative estimation of monsoon precipitation during the late glacial-Holocene in the sandy land of northern China, based on organic carbon isotopic composition data from a loess-sand sequence at margin of the Mu Us sandy land. We use the relationship between monsoon precipitation and the carbon isotopic composition of modern soils as an analogue, with a minor modification, to reconstruct precipitation back to c. 47 ka ago. The preliminary results indicate that annual monsoon precipitation was high after 8 ka, with an average of 435 mm; and it decreased during 18 and 8 ka with a mean value of 194 mm. The precipitation value of 47-18 ka varied between the two. We compare the reconstructed precipitation with other records and paleoclimatic modeling results, showing that our record agrees with reconstructions of the monsoon precipitation from other sources, even capturing short climatic events such as the Younger Dryas. We suggest that solar irradiance, high-latitude temperature/ice volume and local evaporation have together modified moistures in the sandy land.
CHEN Yingyong , LU Huayu , YI Shuangwen , ZHANG Enlou , XU Zhiwei , YU Kaifeng , Joseph A. MASON . A preliminary quantitative reconstruction of precipitation in southern Mu Us sandy land at margin of Asian monsoon-dominated region during late Quaternary[J]. Journal of Geographical Sciences, 2015 , 25(3) : 301 -310 . DOI: 10.1007/s11442-015-1169-8
Figure 1 Location of the study site at Zhenbeitai. The yellow shaded area indicates loess cover, while deserts are indicated by light yellow shade. Present mean annual precipitation is shown in green |
Figure 2 Lithology, OSL dating ages, δ13Corg, magnetic susceptibility (MS) and estimated precipitation of the ZBT loess-sand section. Data of upper part (younger than ~20 ka) of this section has been reported in Lu et al. (2013) |
Table 1 The detailed lithology of the ZBT section |
Depth (m) | Lithosphere description |
---|---|
0-0.6 | Loosely yellowish brown sandy loam soil, some grass roots can be observed |
0.6-1.2 | Compactly light-yellow sandy loess |
1.2-3.0 | Compactly grayish-black sandy loam soil, worm and insect burrows are frequent |
3.0-3.8 | Compactly reddish-black fine sand |
3.8-5.0 | Loosely light yellowish-brown coarse silt |
5.0-7.0 | Loosely yellowish-brown sand, a sedimentary hiatus seems to occur below this layer |
7.0-8.6 | Compactly light-yellow sandy loess |
8.6-12.8 | Loosely grey-yellow sandy loess |
12.8-15.0 | Loosely grey-brown sandy loess |
15.0-16.3 | Compactly dark red sandy loam soil |
16.3-17.3 | Loosely grey-brown sandy loess |
17.3- | The base is not found |
Table 2 Dose rate and OSL ages for samples from the ZBT section |
Lab.N | Sample No. | Depth (cm) | Water (%) | K (%) | U/ppm | Th/ppm | De(Gy) | Dose rate | Aliqouts Num. | Age (ka) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
NJU221 | zbt1.2 m | 120 | 2.25 | 2.13±0.04 | 2.09±0.09 | 10.6±0.32 | 7.92±0.28 | 3.34±0.18 | 20 | 2.38±0.16 |
NJU222 | zbt3 m | 300 | 1.29 | 2.26±0.04 | 1.00±0.06 | 4.67±0.18 | 20.18±1.16 | 2.82±0.13 | 16 | 7.15±0.53 |
NJU223 | zbt5 m | 500 | 0.28 | 2.33±0.04 | 0.39±0.04 | 2.11±0.12 | 35.89±2.82 | 2.58±0.11 | 16 | 13.91±1.23 |
NJU224 | zbt7 m | 700 | 0.36 | 2.28±0.04 | 0.83±0.05 | 3.10±0.14 | 48.50±5.30 | 2.67±0.12 | 16 | 18.14±2.14 |
NJU225 | zbt15 m | 1500 | 3.57 | 1.89±0.04 | 2.16±0.09 | 10.5±0.30 | 133.00±6.32 | 2.94±0.17 | 16 | 45.30±3.44 |
NJU226 | zbt16.3 m | 1630 | 4.56 | 1.79±0.03 | 2.10±0.08 | 8.60±0.26 | 125.12±6.43 | 2.68±0.15 | 14 | 46.78±3.61 |
Figure 3 Comparison of estimated precipitation from the ZBT section with other proxy records. (a) precipitation of the ZBT site; (b) δ18O records of Stalagmites from Hulu and Sanbao caves (Wang et al., 2008; Wang et al., 2001); (c) δ18O of core 17940 from South China Sea (Wang et al., 1999); (d) water content of core from Huguang Maar Lake in southern China (Mingram et al., 2004); (e) summer isolation, 65°N (Berger et al., 1992); the blue-shaded bar shows the YD cold period. |
The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
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