Variations of organic carbon isotopic composition and its environmental significance during the last glacial on western Chinese Loess Plateau

A high-resolution loess section in the western Chinese Loess Plateau, Yuanbao Section, was sampled for organic carbon isotopic analyses. The soil organic carbon isotope (δ13Corg) varied be- tween ?22.6‰ and ?27.5‰ during the last glacial at the section. During the last interstadial, the δ 13Corg values were more negative than those in both early and late periods of the last glacial by 4‰. The iso- topic composition indicates a coupled response of the pure C3 plants to the temperature, precipitation and the concentration of atmospheric CO2. Decrease in temperature and the atmospheric CO2 concentration from the last interstadial to Last Glaicial Maximum (LGM) caused the organic carbon isotopes to be- come positive by 1.5‰―2.0‰. The amplitude of 4‰ in the δ 13Corg variation during the last glacial should be mainly caused by the precipitation change. Therefore, the δ 13Corg variations of the Yuanbao Section during the last glacial period documented the large-amplitude fluctuation of the monsoon precipita- tion, which is estimated to be 250―310 mm more during the last interstadial than that in the LGM, and 100 mm more than that during early last glacial. The rapid changes of the monsoon precipitation on mil-lennial scale during the last glacial have also been recorded in the isotopic variations in Yuanbao loess section. As the isotopic composition varies compli- catedly as shown in the loess-paleosol sequence, it cannot be simply attributed to the abundances of C3 and C4 plants or be used as an indicator of the summer monsoon variations.

Analysis of reconstructed annual precipitation from tree-rings for the past 500 years in the middle Qilian Mountain

The ring-width chronology of a Juniperus przewalskii tree from the middle of the Qilian Mountain was constructed to estimate the annual precipitation (from previous August to current July) since AD 1480.The reconstruction showed four major alternations of drying and wetting over the past 521 years.The rainy 16th century was followed by persistent drought in the 17th century.Moreover,relatively wet conditions persisted from the 18th to the beginning of 20th century until the recurrence of a drought during the 1920s and 1930s.Based on the Empirical Mode Decomposition method,eight Intrinsic Mode Functions (IMFs) were extracted,each representing unique fluctuations of the reconstructed precipitation in the time-frequency domain.The high amplitudes of IMFs on different timescales were often consistent with the high amount of precipitation,and vice versa.The IMF of the lowest frequency indicated that the precipitation has undergone a slow increasing trend over the past 521 years.The 2-3 year and 5-8 year time-scales reflected the characteristics of inter-annual variability in precipitation relevant to regional atmospheric circulation and the El Ni?o-Southern Oscillation (ENSO),respectively.The 10-13 year scale of IMF may be associated with changing solar activity.Specifically,an amalgamation of previous and present data showed that droughts were likely to be a historically persistent feature of the Earth's climate,whereas the probability of intensified rainfall events seemed to increase during the course of the 19th and 20th centuries.These changing characteristics in precipitation indicate an unprecedented alteration of the hydrological cycle,with unknown future amplitude.Our reconstruction complements existing information on past precipitation changes in the Qilian Mountain,and provides additional low-frequency information not previously available.

Climatic changes documented by stable isotopes of sedimentary carbonate in Lake Sugan,northeastern Tibetan Plateau of China,since 2 kaBP

Lake Sugan at the northern edge of the Qaidam Basin was selected as the research object. The temporal se-quence of sedimentary cores retrieved from Lake Sugan since 2 kaBP was reconstructed using the 210Pb, AMS 14C and conventional 14C dating methods. Carbon and oxygen iso-topes of carbonate in the fine-grained lake sediments were analysed. Combined with the changes of δ 18O values of sur-face water and air temperature observation data in the study area, it might be thought that the δ 18O value of the carbon-ate indicates effective moisture, and the changes in δ 13C val-ues are related to annual freeze-up duration of the lake and indirectly indicate air temperature changes in winter half year. From the above, the sequence of climatic changes in the region since 2 kaBP was established. The climatic changes experienced five stages: Warm-dry climate during 0-190 AD; cold-dry climate during 190-580 AD; warm-dry cli-mate during 580-1200 AD (MWP); cold-wet climate during 1200-1880 AD (LIA); cold-dry climate during 1880-1950 AD; and climate warming since 1950s. The air temperature changes in winter half year reflected by carbon isotope since 2 kaBP are in good agreement with the historical literature records and other geologic records, which shows that the climate changes recorded by the stable isotopes from Lake Sugan since 2 kaBP are of universal significance.

Different climatic controls of soil δ^(13)C_(org) in three mid-latitude regions of the Northern Hemisphere since the Last Glacial period

Paleoecological records of soil δ13Corg from three regions in the middle latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, including the Chinese Loess Plateau (CLP), the Great Plains and adjacent areas of North America and northwestern Europe, showed different variations since the Last Glacial period. An at-tempt was made to evaluate the causes for the difference in δ13Corg on the basis of the modern climatic data collected in these regions and of the modern C3 and C4 plant distributions. The analysis indicates that temperature, especially the growing season temperature, has a dominant control on the growth of C4 plants. When the mean annual or growing season temperatures are below the "threshold value" , the growth of C4 plants is limited. When the temperature is above the "threshold value" , C4 plants can grow under a wide range of precipitation. However, when the precipitation is high enough to favor the growth of trees, the proportions of C4 plants in local biomass will decline. The implicit control factor recovered by sedimentary records is consistent with the control factor on modern C3/C4 distribution. Pure C3 plants have been dominating the local biomass since the Last Glacial period in European loess region, mainly owing to the low local temperature. The increases in C4 plants from the late Pleistocene to the Holocene in the Chinese Loess Plateau, the Great Plains and adjacent areas, mainly reflect the influ-ence of increasing temperature.

Difference in Tree Growth Responses to Climate at the Upper Treeline: Qilian Juniper in the Anyemaqen Mountains

Three ring-width chronologies were developed from Qilian Juniper （Sabina przewalskii Kom.） at the upper treeline along a west-east gradient in the Anyemaqen Mountains. Most chronological statistics, except for mean sensitivity （MS）, decreased from west to east. The first principal component （PC1） Ioadings indicated that stands in a similar climate condition were most important to the variability of radial growth. PC2 Ioadings decreased from west to east, suggesting the difference of tree-growth between eastern and western Anyemaqen Mountains. Correlations between standard chronologies and climatic factors revealed different climatic influences on radial growth along a west-east gradient in the study area. Temperature of warm season （July-August） was important to the radial growth at the upper treeline in the whole study area. Precipitation of current May was an important limiting factor of tree growth only in the western （drier） upper treeline, whereas precipitation of current September limited tree growth in the eastern （wetter） upper treeline. Response function analysis results showed that there were regional differences between tree growth and climatic factors in various sampling sites of the whole study area. Temperature and precipitation were the important factors influencing tree growth in western （drier） upper treeline. However, tree growth was greatly limited by temperature at the upper treeline in the middle area, and was more limited by precipitation than temperature in the eastern （wetter） upper treeline.