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Holocene climate cycles in northwest margin of Asian monsoon

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Abstract

In the mid-latitude regions of the Asian continent, Zhuye Lake is located in the northwest margin of the Asian monsoon, where the modern climate is affected by the Asian monsoon and Westerlies. In this study, we investigated the absolutely dated Holocene records in Zhuye Lake for detecting the Holocene climate cycles. Totally, 14 14C dates and 6 optically simulated luminescence (OSL) dates are obtained from the QTH01 and QTH02 sections. The proxies of grain-size, total organic carbon content (TOC), C/N and δ13C are used for wavelet analysis, and the results show obvious ∼256, ∼512 and ∼1024-year climate cycles, which are consistent with the Holocene millennial and centennial scale climate cycles in the typical Asian summer monsoon domain. In different parts of the Zhuye Lake, the Holocene sediments show variable climate cycles that are affected by the lake basin topography. In the Zhuye Lake, the Holocene climate cycles are mainly correlated with the solar-related Asian summer monsoon variability and the North Atlantic ice-rafting events.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Center for Hydrologic Cycle and Water Resources in Arid Region, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    Yu Li, Nai’ang Wang, Zhuolun Li, Xuehua Zhou & Chengqi Zhang

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  1. Yu Li
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  2. Nai’ang Wang
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  3. Zhuolun Li
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  4. Xuehua Zhou
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  5. Chengqi Zhang
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Correspondence to Yu Li.

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Foundation item: Under the auspices of National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41001116), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. LZUJBKY-2010-99)

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Li, Y., Wang, N., Li, Z. et al. Holocene climate cycles in northwest margin of Asian monsoon. Chin. Geogr. Sci. 22, 450–461 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11769-012-0551-z

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