The ecotone between alpine steppe and meadow in the central Tibetan Plateau is sensitive to climate changes. Here we used the pollen records from three lakes in this region to reconstruct the evolution of local vegeta...The ecotone between alpine steppe and meadow in the central Tibetan Plateau is sensitive to climate changes. Here we used the pollen records from three lakes in this region to reconstruct the evolution of local vegetation and climate since 8200 cal. yr BP. The history of temperature and precipitation was reconstructed quantitatively with multi-bioclimatic indexes and a transfer function from pollen records. Results show that the steppe/meadow dominated during the period of 8200―6500 cal. yr BP, especially 8200―7200 cal. yr BP, indicating the central Tibetan Plateau was controlled by strong monsoon. The steppe dominated during the periods of 6000―4900, 4400―3900, and 2800―2400 cal. yr BP. The steppe decreased gradually and the meadow expanded during the period of 4900―4400 cal. yr BP. Three century-scale drought events occurred during 5800―4900, 4400―3900 and 2800 cal. yr BP, respectively. The first time when the regional climate shifted to the present level was at 6500 cal. yr BP in the central Plateau. Since 3000 cal. yr BP, the temperature and precipitation have decreased gradually to the present level. However, the cold climate between 700―300 cal. yr BP likely corresponds to the Little Ice Age.展开更多
The recent increase in typhoon (tropical cyclone) activity has attracted great interest and induced heated debates over whether it is linked to global warming or only a return to an active phase of the well-known mult...The recent increase in typhoon (tropical cyclone) activity has attracted great interest and induced heated debates over whether it is linked to global warming or only a return to an active phase of the well-known multi-decadal variability. Due to the short instrumental record, our knowledge is quite scarce on the complex processes and mechanism of typhoon generation, development, and evolution, especially for the rare but highly destructive super-typhoons. It is therefore very important to extend the time span of typhoon activity records. Paleotempestology, a young science that emerged in the early 1990s, studies past typhoon activity spanning several centuries to millennia before the instrumental era through the use of geological proxies and historical documentary records. This paper presents a brief review and synthesis on the major research advances and findings of paleotempestology with an emphasis on proxy technique development and applications. The methodology has been evolving from single geologic proxy to multi-proxy techniques by integrating microfossils, sedimentary organic elemental ratios, and stable isotopes, together with typical sedimentary textures and structures, for the diagnosis of storm deposits. A newly-developed proxy technique is employing oxygen isotopes preserved in growing laminae of tree rings, cave stalagmites, and reef corals to diagnose typhoon rainwater impacts. Historical documentary records have been systematically compiled and analyzed to reconstruct the history of typhoon activity in some regions. The extracted typhoon-proxy data show that there does not exist a simple linear relationship between typhoon frequency and Holocene climate (temperature) change. Typhoon activity should have a secular and constant linkage with ENSO fluc- tuations, in that more typhoons and hurricanes make landfalls in China, Central and North America during La Ni?a years than El Ni?o years. This finding is consistent with that derived from recent in- strumental data. Shifts in positions of subtropical high exert great influence on storm tracks, but their long-term relationship is still not well understood. All these findings are significant in projecting ty- phoon trends under global warming scenarios. Future developments in paleotempestology should strengthen the following research fields: (1) proxy generation mechanism and preservation potential, (2) inter-validation of different proxy data, (3) recognition of storm and tsunami deposits, (4) evaluation of paleo-typhoon intensity, (5) numerical modeling, and (6) regional to global scale comparison studies.展开更多
基金Supported by Chinese Academy of Sciences 100 Talents Project (Grant No. 29082762)National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 40671196, 40372085, 49371068, 49871078)U.S. National Science Foundation (Grant Nos. ATM-9410491, ATM-008194)
文摘The ecotone between alpine steppe and meadow in the central Tibetan Plateau is sensitive to climate changes. Here we used the pollen records from three lakes in this region to reconstruct the evolution of local vegetation and climate since 8200 cal. yr BP. The history of temperature and precipitation was reconstructed quantitatively with multi-bioclimatic indexes and a transfer function from pollen records. Results show that the steppe/meadow dominated during the period of 8200―6500 cal. yr BP, especially 8200―7200 cal. yr BP, indicating the central Tibetan Plateau was controlled by strong monsoon. The steppe dominated during the periods of 6000―4900, 4400―3900, and 2800―2400 cal. yr BP. The steppe decreased gradually and the meadow expanded during the period of 4900―4400 cal. yr BP. Three century-scale drought events occurred during 5800―4900, 4400―3900 and 2800 cal. yr BP, respectively. The first time when the regional climate shifted to the present level was at 6500 cal. yr BP in the central Plateau. Since 3000 cal. yr BP, the temperature and precipitation have decreased gradually to the present level. However, the cold climate between 700―300 cal. yr BP likely corresponds to the Little Ice Age.
基金Supported jointly by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 40476028 and 40576030)Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University (Grant No. NCET-07-0619)+2 种基金the U.S. National Science Foundation (Grant Nos. BCS-0213884 and BCS-0452399)the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (CRN2050)the LSU Council on Research
文摘The recent increase in typhoon (tropical cyclone) activity has attracted great interest and induced heated debates over whether it is linked to global warming or only a return to an active phase of the well-known multi-decadal variability. Due to the short instrumental record, our knowledge is quite scarce on the complex processes and mechanism of typhoon generation, development, and evolution, especially for the rare but highly destructive super-typhoons. It is therefore very important to extend the time span of typhoon activity records. Paleotempestology, a young science that emerged in the early 1990s, studies past typhoon activity spanning several centuries to millennia before the instrumental era through the use of geological proxies and historical documentary records. This paper presents a brief review and synthesis on the major research advances and findings of paleotempestology with an emphasis on proxy technique development and applications. The methodology has been evolving from single geologic proxy to multi-proxy techniques by integrating microfossils, sedimentary organic elemental ratios, and stable isotopes, together with typical sedimentary textures and structures, for the diagnosis of storm deposits. A newly-developed proxy technique is employing oxygen isotopes preserved in growing laminae of tree rings, cave stalagmites, and reef corals to diagnose typhoon rainwater impacts. Historical documentary records have been systematically compiled and analyzed to reconstruct the history of typhoon activity in some regions. The extracted typhoon-proxy data show that there does not exist a simple linear relationship between typhoon frequency and Holocene climate (temperature) change. Typhoon activity should have a secular and constant linkage with ENSO fluc- tuations, in that more typhoons and hurricanes make landfalls in China, Central and North America during La Ni?a years than El Ni?o years. This finding is consistent with that derived from recent in- strumental data. Shifts in positions of subtropical high exert great influence on storm tracks, but their long-term relationship is still not well understood. All these findings are significant in projecting ty- phoon trends under global warming scenarios. Future developments in paleotempestology should strengthen the following research fields: (1) proxy generation mechanism and preservation potential, (2) inter-validation of different proxy data, (3) recognition of storm and tsunami deposits, (4) evaluation of paleo-typhoon intensity, (5) numerical modeling, and (6) regional to global scale comparison studies.
