Holocene monsoon dynamics at Kunlun Pass on the northeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Peng Chen; Zhongbo Yu; Markus Czymzik; Ala Aldahan; Jinguo Wang; Peng Yi; Göran Possnert; Xuegao Chen; Minjie Zheng; Huijun Jin; Dongliang Luo; Qingbai Wu

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.145369

Holocene monsoon dynamics at Kunlun Pass on the northeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Sci Total Environ. 2021 Jun 1:771:145369. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.145369. Epub 2021 Jan 23.

Authors

Peng Chen¹, Zhongbo Yu², Markus Czymzik³, Ala Aldahan⁴, Jinguo Wang⁵, Peng Yi⁶, Göran Possnert⁷, Xuegao Chen⁸, Minjie Zheng⁹, Huijun Jin¹⁰, Dongliang Luo¹¹, Qingbai Wu¹¹

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Hydrology-Water Resources and Hydraulic Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China; School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China; Joint International Research Laboratory of Global Change and Water Cycle, Nanjing 210098, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Hydrology-Water Resources and Hydraulic Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China; Joint International Research Laboratory of Global Change and Water Cycle, Nanjing 210098, China; Yangtze Institute for Conservation and Development, Hohai University, Jiangsu 210098, China. Electronic address: zyu@hhu.edu.cn.
³ Leibniz-Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde (IOW), Marine Geology, Rostock 18119, Germany.
⁴ Department of Geology, United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain 17551, United Arab Emirates.
⁵ School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China.
⁶ State Key Laboratory of Hydrology-Water Resources and Hydraulic Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China; College of Hydrology and Water Resources, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China.
⁷ Tandem Laboratory, Uppsala University, Uppsala 75120, Sweden.
⁸ State Key Laboratory of Hydrology-Water Resources and Hydraulic Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China; Joint International Research Laboratory of Global Change and Water Cycle, Nanjing 210098, China; College of Hydrology and Water Resources, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China.
⁹ Department of Geology - Quaternary Sciences, Lund University, Lund 22362, Sweden.
¹⁰ State Key Laboratory of Frozen Soils Engineering, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China; School of Civil Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China.
¹¹ State Key Laboratory of Frozen Soils Engineering, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China.

PMID: 33545484
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.145369

Abstract

Various proxy records have been used for the understanding of environmental and climate variations during the Holocene. Here, for the first time, we use meteoric ¹⁰Be isotope measurements performed on sediments from a drill core collected at the Kunlun Pass (KP) on the northeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (NETP) to investigate hydroclimate changes during the Holocene. The ¹⁰Be flux suggests relative low levels in the Early Holocene, followed by a sharp increase to high values at around 4 ka BP (4 ka BP = 4000 years before present). Afterwards, the ¹⁰Be flux remains on a high level during the Late Holocene, but decreases slightly towards today. These ¹⁰Be deposition patterns are compared to moisture changes in regions dominated by the Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM), East Asian Summer Monsoon (EASM), and the Westerlies. Different from the gradual changes in monsoon patterns, the ¹⁰Be data reveal low levels during the Early Holocene until ~4 ka BP when an obvious increase is indicated and a relative high level continues to this day, which is relatively more in agreement with patterns of the Westerlies. This finding provides a new evidence for a shift in the dominant pattern of atmospheric circulation at the KP region from a more monsoonal one to one dominated by the Westerlies. Our results improve the understanding of non-stationary interactions and spatial relevance of the EASM, the ISM and the Westerlies on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

Keywords: Asian Summer Monsoon; Atmospheric circulations; Beryllium-10; Moisture variation; The Westerlies.