This paper reviews recently published literature, most of which was published in Chinese, and searches for regional patterns of Holocene changes useful in depicting global patterns. The Holocene in the Xinjiang region can be divided into three stages: a warming and dry early stage (from 11 10 to 8-7 ka BP), a warm and wet middle stage (from 8-7 to 4.5-3 ka BP) and a fluctuating cool and dry late stage (since 4.5-3 ka BP). The Holocene in the northern Tibetan Plateau can also be divided into three stages: a warming and wet stage (from 10.5-10 to 5-4 ka BP), followed by a variable drying and probably warm stage (5-4 to 3 ka BP) and ending with a cool and dry stage (since 3 ka BP). In the Inner Mongolian Plateau, the early Holocene (from 10.5-9.5 to 8-7.5 ka BP) was warming and dry, and a warm and wet climate occurred from 7.5 to 3.5, during which the best time was 6.3-3.8 ka BP; the climate has been variably drying and probably cooling since 3.5 ka BP. In the northwestern part of the Loess Plateau, several Holocene palaeosols have been identified (10-9, 7.5-5, 4-3 and 2.7-2 ka BP) with the 7.5-5 ka BP palaeosol being most strongly expressed. The best-developed palaeosol-equivalent in major valleys is a swamp-wetland facies deposited between 8885 and 3805 14C yr BP under an extremely wet regime. The climate has fluctuated significantly at least three times around a dry and probably cool regime after the swamp-wetland facies-depositional period. Our summary shows that the Holocene Climatic Optimum occurred nearly contemporaneously (8-5 ka BP) at all sites in the Xinjiang region, in the Inner Mongolian Plateau and in the northwestern part of the Loess Plateau. A warming and wet early Holocene (10-8 ka BP) in the northern Tibetan Plateau is most likely related to high effective soil moisture resulting from snow and ice melting. We propose here that the middle Holocene Climatic Optimum (8-5 ka BP) in arid to semi-arid China was primarily a delayed response of the low latitude oceans to high latitude peak insolation (9-8 ka BP).
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
customersupport@researchsolutions.com
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.