Decoupling of Climatic Drying and Asian Dust Export During the Holocene

Abstract

Both paleoclimatic records and models suggest that the dust accumulation in ice cores and marine sediments, which is often regarded as a direct record of changing atmospheric dust loading and used to estimate its climatic impact, is strongly coupled to the aridity of dust source regions. However, the underlying association of this couple has not been tested directly because of the lack of continuous and well‐dated independent records of eolian activity in dust source regions. Here we present a high‐resolution multiproxy record of the Holocene eolian activity and climate changes from Lake Xiarinur in north China, a major Asian dust source region. Our data, together with the records of Asian dust accumulation in downwind areas, including the North Pacific Ocean and Greenland, suggest a decoupling between long‐distant Asian dust export and climatic drying in the Holocene. Although the climate was humid and the eolian activity was weak in the source region during the early Holocene, the dust accumulation in the North Pacific Ocean and Greenland was relatively high. Similarly, while climatic drying and strong eolian activity occurred in north China during the late Holocene, the rate of dust accumulation in the downwind areas was low. The long‐distant export of Asian dust is closely correlated with the strength of the Siberian High rather than the westerlies as widely believed before. The rate of dust accumulation in the GISP2 Greenland ice core is comparable in patterns with the intensity of the Siberian High forced eolian activity on both millennial and centennial time scales.

Global Warming Increases the Incidence of Haze Days in China

“…By contrast, Pb isotope records from Japan suggest that the anthropogenic Pb transported from China and Russia increased with the atmospheric loadings of anthropogenic emissions in China (Kuwae et al, ; Figure ).This evidence shows that the anthropogenic pollutants emitted from the eastern Asia can potentially stagnate over the source areas and neighboring regions under the conditions of low wind strength but be transported worldwide by strong winds and thus have a global impact. This postulation is consistent with the dominant role of atmospheric circulation in the long‐distant transport of Asian mineral dust during the Holocene (Xu et al, ).…”

Atmospheric Dust Variations in the Ili Basin, Northwest China, During the Last Glacial Period as Revealed by a High Mountain Loess‐Paleosol Sequence

“…The higher MARs in the loess sections display a close association with increased grain sizes that are controlled by variations in the SH (Li, Song, Fitzsimmons, Chang, et al, ; Sun, Wang, et al, ; Figure ). Xu et al () suggested that the long‐distance transport of Asian dust to Greenland and the North Pacific during the Holocene was closely correlated with the strength of the SH. The stronger surface winds in dust source areas, producing more frequent and/or intensive dust storms, have enhanced the atmospheric dust loadings and vice versa (Qiang, Chen, et al, ; Ruth et al, ).…”

14 kyr of atmospheric mineral dust deposition in north-eastern China: A record of palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental changes in the Chinese dust source regions

“…Lake Xiarinur (Xu et al, 2018), (6) Lake Hulun (Wen et al, 2010) and (7) Lake Dali (Goldsmith et al, 2017). Deserts and stabilized dune fields of China: Taklamakan (TK), Gurbantunggut (GT), Qaidam (QD), Badain Jaran (BJ), Tengger (TG), Mu Us (MU) deserts; Chinese Loess Plateau (CLP); Onqin Daga (OD), Hulun Buir (HB), Horqin (HQ) and Songnen (SN) dune fields.…”

“…A reconstruction of effective moisture across the Chinese drylands, combining aeolian sand sequences and vegetation reconstructions, suggests a more arid climate dur-ing the late Pleistocene followed by gradually more humid condi-tions throughout the early Holocene (Li et al, 2014). Various records across the Chinese dust source regions sug-gest the climate was relatively humid during the early Holocene with a trend towards even more humid conditions into the middle Holocene which became significantly drier during the late Holo-cene (Chen et al, 2015;Goldsmith et al, 2017;Shen et al, 2005;Wen et al, 2010;Xiao et al, 2004;Xu et al, 2018;Zhao et al, 2009). These records include (1) a moisture index synthesized from fossil-pollen records (30) across arid and semi-arid China (Figure 8d; Zhao et al, 2009); (2) a lake-level reconstruction from the closed lake Dali in Inner Mongolia (Figure 8e; Goldsmith et al, 2017); (3) a pollen-based reconstruction of annual precipi-tations from lake Hulun, NE China (Figure 8f; Wen et al, 2010).…”

“…All these evidence consistently support that the cli-mate gradually got more humid from the early to the middle Holocene and subsequently became drier over the late Holocene across the Chinese dust source regions. Zhao et al, 2009); (e) lake level of Lake Dali, Inner Mongolia (Goldsmith et al, 2017); (f) pollen-based annual precipitation (P a ) reconstruction from lake Hulun, Inner Mongolia (Wen et al, 2010); (g) percentage of tree pollens from lakes Dahai, Inner Mongolia (black line; Xiao et al, 2004) and Qinghai, Tibetan Plateau (dashed green line; (Shen et al, 2005); (h) pollen-based annual precipitation reconstruction from lake Sihailongwan (Stebich et al, 2015); (i) aeolian activity index from lake Xiarinur (Xu et al, 2018); (j) probability density of aeolian sand dates on the Chinese Loess Plateau (Wang et al, 2014); (k) siliclastic influx (F-Al 2 O 3 ) to lake Sihailongwan, NE China (Schettler et al, 2006a); (l) grain-size component (<37 µm) in Gushantun (green curve)…”