Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T23:38:41.388Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Variability of East Asian Winter Monsoon in Quaternary Climatic Extremes in North China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Huayu Lu ,
Ko van Huissteden ,
Jie Zhou ,
Jef Vandenberghe ,
Xiaodong Liu  and
Zhisheng An
Huayu Lu
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an, 710054, China
Ko van Huissteden
Affiliation:
Faculty of Earth Sciences, Vrije Universiteit, 1081 HV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Jie Zhou
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an, 710054, China
Jef Vandenberghe
Affiliation:
Faculty of Earth Sciences, Vrije Universiteit, 1081 HV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Xiaodong Liu
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an, 710054, China
Zhisheng An
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an, 710054, China
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In order to examine high-frequency variations of East Asian winter monsoon in Quaternary climatic extremes, two typical loess–paleosol sequences in the Chinese Loess Plateau were investigated. Sandy layers in the loess deposits, the “Upper sand” and “Lower sand” (layers L9 and L15, respectively), which represent a high-resolution record of paleomonsoon changes, have been sampled at intervals of 5–6 cm from sections at Luochuan and Xifeng. The grain size and magnetic susceptibility was measured for all samples. The grain-size results (a proxy of winter monsoon strength) indicate that the winter monsoon strength fluctuated on a millennial timescale during cold climatic extremes, with climatic events of a few hundred to a few thousand years. However, the winter monsoon was relatively stable during warm periods. The magnetic susceptibility signal (a proxy of summer monsoon intensity) is practically constant over the same period. This is tentatively explained by the assumption that the summer monsoon intensity was too low to be recorded in the magnetic susceptibility signal. The intensified winter monsoon events show periodicities in a range of 1000 to 2770 yr, with a dominant cycle of approximately 1450 yr. The detection of this oscillation in older glacial stages strongly suggests that it may be a pervasive cycle of the cold climatic phases of the Quaternary. Millennial-scale variations of the winter monsoon may be caused by instability of the westerly jet, which is determined by temperature differences between the polar and the equatorial regions.

Keywords

winter monsoonQuaternary climatic extremesnorthern Chinaclimate variabilitygrain-sizemagnetic susceptibility
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 54 , Issue 3 , November 2000 , pp. 321 - 327
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

An, Z.S., Liu, T.S., Lou, Y.C., Porter, S.C., Kukla, G., Wu, X.H., Hua, Y.M. (1990). The long-term palaeomonsoon variation recorded by the loess–paleosol sequence in central China. Quaternary International, 7/8, 91–95.Google Scholar
An, Z.S., Kukla, G., Porter, S.C., Xiao, J.L. (1991). Magnetic susceptibility evidence of monsoon variation on the Loess Plateau of central China during the last 130,000 years. Quaternary Research, 36, 29–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
An, Z.S., Kukla, G., Porter, S.C., Xiao, J.L. (1991). Late Quaternary dust flow on Chinese Loess Plateau. Catena, 18, 125–132.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
An, Z.S., Porter, S.C., Kutzbach, J.E., Wu, X.H., Wang, S.M., Liu, X.D., Li, X.Q., Zhou, W.J. (2000). Asynchronous Holocene opitimum of the East Asian monsoon. Quaternary Science Reviews, 19, 743–762.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bond, G., Showers, W., Cheseby, M., Lotti, R., Almasi, P., deMenocal, P., Priore, P., Cullen, H., Hajdas, I., Bonani, G. (1997). A pervasive millennial scale cycle in North Atlantic Holocene and Glacial climates. Science, 278, 1257–1266.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, L.X., Zhu, Q.G., Luo, H.B., He, J.H., Dong, M., Feng, Z.Q. (1991). East Asian Monsoons. Chinese Meteorological Press, Beijing.Google Scholar
Dettinger, M.D., Ghil, M., Strong, C.M., Weibel, W., Yiou, P. (1995). Software expedites singular-spectrum analysis of noisy time series. EOS, Transaction of American Geophysical Union, 76, 12–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ding, Z.L., Yu, Z.W., Rutter, N.W., Liu, T.S. (1994). Towards an orbital time scale for Chinese loess deposit. Quaternary Science Reviews, 13, 39–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ding, Z.L., Yu, Z.W., Liu, T.S. (1995). Ice-volume forcing of East Asian winter monsoon variations in the past 800,000 years. Quaternary Research, 44, 149–159.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ding, Z.L., Ren, J.Z., Yang, S.L., Liu, T.S. (1999). Climate instability during the penultimate glaciation: Evidence from two high-resolution loess records, China. Journal of Geophysical Research, 104, 20,123–20,132.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guo, Z.T., Liu, T.S., Fedoroff, N., Wei, L.Y., Ding, Z.L., Wu, N.Q., Lu, H.Y., Jiang, W.Y., An, Z.S. (1998). Climate extremes in loess of China coupled with the strength of deep-water formation in the North Atlantic. Global and Planetary Change, 18, 113–128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holton, J.R. (1972). An Introduction to Dynamic Meteorology. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Kukla, G., An, Z.S. (1989). Loess stratigraphy in central China. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 72, 203–223.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liu, T.S. (1985). Loess and Environment. China Ocean Press, Beijing.Google Scholar
Liu, T.S., Ding, Z.L. (1998). Chinese loess and the paleomonsoon. Annual Reviews of Earth and Planetary Sciences, 26, 111–145.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liu, X.D. (1998). A Numerical Simulation Study on Mechanism of the East Asian Monsoon Climate Change. Chinese Academy of Sciences, Google Scholar
Liu, X.M., Liu, T.S., Xu, T.C., Liu, C., Chen, M.Y. (1988). The Chinese loess in Xifeng, I. The primary study on magnetostratigraphy of a loess profile in Xifeng area, Gansu province. Geophysical Journal, 92, 345–348.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lu, H.Y., Li, L., Huang, X.P., Sun, Y.B., Sun, D.H. (1996). East Asia Winter monsoon oscillation and its correlation with the North Atlantic Heinrich events during the last glaciation. Progress in Natural Science, 6, 711–717.Google Scholar
Lu, H.Y., An, Z.S., Vandenberghe, J., Nugteren, G.. Evidences for palaeoclimatic significance of grain size composite of loess deposit in central Chinese Loess Plateau. An, Z.S., Zhou, W.J. (1997). Proceedings of 30th International Geological Congress. VSP, 5–10.Google Scholar
Lu, H.Y., An, Z.S. (1998). Palaeoclimatic significance of grain size of loess–palaeosol sequence of Central China. Science in China D, 41, 626–631.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lu, H.Y., Huissteden, K.V., An, Z.S., Nugteren, G., Vandenberghe, J. (1999). East Asia winter monsoon changes on millennial time scale before the last glacial-interglacial cycle. Journal of Quaternary Sciences, 14, 101–111.3.0.CO;2-M>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maher, B.A., Thompson, R. (1992). Palaeoclimatic significance of the magnetic record of the Chinese loess and paleosols. Quaternary Research, 37, 155–170.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maher, B.A., Thompson, R., Zhou, L.P. (1994). Spatial and temporal reconstructions of changes in the Asian palaeomonsoon: A new mineral magnetic approach. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 125, 461–471.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McManus, J.F., Oppo, D.W., Cullen, J.L. (1999). A 0.5-million-year record of millennial-scale climate variability in the North Atlantic. Science, 283, 971–975.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mommersteeg, H.J.P.M., Loutre, M.F., Baert, E., Berger, A.. Orbital forcing and cyclic abrupt climatic change during the last 170,000 years. Evidence from high-resolution palynological records of the Colombian eastern Cordillera. Mommersteeg, H. (1998). Vegetation Development and Cyclic and Abrupt Climatic Change during the Late Quaternary. University of Amsterdam, Google Scholar
Oppo, D.W., McManus, J.F., Cullen, J.L. (1998). Abrupt climate events 500,000 to 340,000 years ago: Evidence from subpolar North Atlantic sediments. Science, 279, 1335–1338.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Porter, S.C., An, Z.S. (1995). Correlation between climate events in the North Atlantic and China during the last glaciation. Nature, 375, 305–308.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prins, M.A., Reichart, G.J., Stuut, J.B.W., Weltje, G.J., Postma, G. (1999). Teleconnections between the Asian monsoons and the North Atlantic climate during the Late Quaternary. Geologica Ultraiectina, 168, 97–120.Google Scholar
Raymo, M.E., Ganley, K., Carter, S., Oppo, D.W., McManus, J.F. (1998). Millennial-scale climate instability during the early Pleistocene epoch. Nature, 392, 699–702.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sirocko, F., Garbe-Schönberg, D., McIntyre, A., Molfino, B. (1996). Teleconnections between the subtropical monsoons and high-latitude climates during the last deglaciation. Science, 272, 526–529.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomson, D.J. (1982). Spectrum estimation and harmonic analysis. IEEE Proceedings, 70, 1055–1096.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vandenberghe, J., An, Z.S., Nugteren, G., Lu, H.Y., Huissteden, K.V. (1997). New absolute time scale for the Quaternary climate in the Chinese loess region by grain-size analysis. Geology, 25, 35–38.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Huissteden, J., Nugteren, G., Vandenberghe, J., An, Z.S. (1997). Spectral analysis of a grain size record of the loess deposits in Central China. Zhang, Z. Proceedings of 30th International Geological. Congress VSP, 313–325.Google Scholar
Vautard, R., Yiou, P., Ghil, M. (1992). Singular spectral analysis: A toolkit for short, noisy chaotic signals. Physica D, 59, 95–126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Xiao, J.L., Porter, S.C., An, Z.S., Kumai, H., Yoshikawa, S. (1995). Grain size of quartz as an indicator of winter monsoon strength on the Loess Plateau of central China during the last 130,000 yr. Quaternary Research, 43, 22–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhang, X.Y., Arimoto, R., An, Z.S. (1999). Glacial and interglacial patterns for Asian dust transport. Quaternary Science Review, 18, 811–819.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhou, L.P., Oldfield, F., Wintle, A.G., Robinson, S.G., Wang, J.T. (1990). Partly pedogenic origin of magnetic variations in Chinese loess. Nature, 346, 77–739.CrossRefGoogle Scholar