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High-resolution evidence from southern China of an early holocene optimum and a mid-Holocene dry event during the Past 18,000 Years

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Weijian Zhou ,
Xuefeng Yu ,
A.J. Timothy Jull ,
G. Burr ,
J.Y. Xiao ,
Xuefeng Lu  and
Feng Xian
Weijian Zhou*
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an 710075, China
Xuefeng Yu
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an 710075, China
A.J. Timothy Jull
Affiliation:
NSF-Arizona AMS Laboratory, P. O. Box 210081, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85271, USA
G. Burr
Affiliation:
NSF-Arizona AMS Laboratory, P. O. Box 210081, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85271, USA
J.Y. Xiao
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, 210097, China
Xuefeng Lu
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an 710075, China
Feng Xian
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an 710075, China
*
*Corresponding author. Fax: +86-29-8320456. E-mail address:[email protected](W. Zhou).
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Abstract

Computer models suggest that the Holocene Optimum for East Asian summer monsoon precipitation occurred at different times in different regions of China. Previous studies indicate that this time-transgressive Holocene Optimum should have been experienced about 3000 yr ago in southern China. In this study we describe a section which allows us to test this timing directly. We have closely examined high-resolution eutrophic peat/mud sequences covering the past 18,000 cal yr at Dahu, Jiangxi, on the southern boundary of the mid subtropical zone in China. Late Pleistocene successions in the Dahu record indicate cooler and much wetter conditions relative to synchronous events in north-central China. Our results indicate that the Holocene Optimum occurred between ca. 10,000 and 6000 cal yr ago in southern China, consistent with the global pattern. Conditions were relatively dry and cold from 6000 to 4000 cal yr ago. Our data also support the conclusion that the last deglaciation to early Holocene in the south was much wetter, resulting in the formation of dense broad-leaved forests, which could have acted to moderate land temperature ∼10,000 to 6000 cal yr ago, yielding a stable early-Holocene climate. After 6000 cal yr, forest reduction led to unstable land temperatures, and possibly to a northerly shift of the subtropical high-pressure system. Whatever the mechanism, these changes resulted in decreased precipitation between 6000 and 4000 cal yr B.P. in southern China.

Keywords

Lacustrine sedimentEutrophic peatAMS 14C datingHolocene OptimumMonsoon precipitation
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 62 , Issue 1 , July 2004 , pp. 39 - 48
Copyright
University of Washington

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