The variations of summer and winter monsoons during the Holocene in theeastern Tibetan Plateau are shown to follow two basic models based on the reliable dating andhigh-resolution monsoon proxies determinations, one being a synchronous model in that both summerand winter monsoons are strengthening or decreasing, and the other to form a complementary pattern.These two different patterns evenly interact with each other on different time scales and togethercompose a complicated monsoon climatic model in this region. The climatic condition integrated bywinter and summer monsoons is synchronous to the global pattern, which also shows the instability ofthe Holocene climate on centennial-millennial timescale. The abrupt monsoon event in about 6.2 kacat. BP is much more severe than that in ca. 8.0 ka cal. BP, which indicates the regional characterof the Asian monsoon and that the Asian monsoon climate is indeed a window on the global climatesystem.
The commonality and difference in the variations of temperature and precipitation between the Northern Hemisphere (NH) and Southern Hemispheres (SH) in the last millennium are investigated by analysis of the millennium simulation with the ECHO-G coupled climate model. The NH mean temperature variations are generally consistent with those of the SH counterpart on the interannual, decadal and centennial time scales. But, the transition times between the medieval warm period (MWP), the little ice age (LIA), and the present-day warm period (PWP) in the NH leads that in the SH; and the anomaly amplitude in the NH is significantly larger than the SH counterpart. For the precipitation variations, the NH mean precipitation varies in-phase with the SH mean precipitation on decadal and centennial scales (mainly in the mid-high latitudes) but out-of-phase on the interannual scale (mainly in the low latitudes). During the MWP the warming has comparable amplitude in the NH and SH; however, during the PWP the NH warming is considerably stronger than the SH warming. Further, the present-day temperature rises in the NH high latitudes but decreases in the SH high latitudes, which is very different from the warming pattern during the MWP. Since during the MWP the greenhouse gases (GHG) concentration stayed at a low level, we infer that the present-day opposite temperature tendency in the high latitudes between the two hemispheres may be related to the increase of the GHG concentration.
The "mean value concept" in a mono-linear regression of multi-variables is clarified.Its applications to reconstruction of the past 90-year salinity of the sea surface water in Xisha Islands and to tracing the past 80 ka paleo-geomagnetic events from the Luochuan loess 10Be record are introduced in detail,which show the significance and the potential of the "mean value concept" in geoscience research.
The expansion of inland Asia deserts has considerably influenced the environmental, social and economic activities in Asia. Aridification of inland Asia, especially timing of the initiation of Asian desertification, is a contentious topic in paleoclimatology. Late Cenozoic eolian loess-red clay sequences on the Chinese Loess Plateau, which possess abundant paleoclimatic and paleo-environmental information, can be regarded as an indicator of inland Asia desertification. Here we present a detailed magnetostratigraphic investigation of a new red clay sequence about 654 m in Zhuanglang located at the western Chinese Loess Plateau. Sedimentological, geochemical, mineralogical, and quartz morphological lines of evidence show that the red clay is of eolian origin. Magnetostratigraphic correlations indicate that this core sequence spans from 25.6 to 4.8 Ma, and typical eolian red clay appears as early as 25 Ma. This extends the lower limit of the red clay on the Chinese Loess Plateau from the previously thought early Miocene back into the late Oligocene. This new red clay record further implies that the inland Asia desertification was initiated at least by the late Oligocene. This sequence provides a unique high-resolution geological record for understanding the inland Asia desertification process since the late Oligocene.
