The browser you are using is not supported by this website. All versions of Internet Explorer are no longer supported, either by us or Microsoft (read more here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/windows/end-of-ie-support).

Please use a modern browser to fully experience our website, such as the newest versions of Edge, Chrome, Firefox or Safari etc.

minjie

Minjie Zheng

Postdoctoral fellow

minjie

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

Author

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

Summary, in English

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.

Department/s

  • Quaternary Sciences
  • MERGE: ModElling the Regional and Global Earth system

Publishing year

2021

Language

English

Publication/Series

Science of the Total Environment

Volume

771

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Elsevier

Topic

  • Geology

Keywords

  • Asian Summer Monsoon
  • Atmospheric circulations
  • Beryllium-10
  • Moisture variation
  • The Westerlies

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0048-9697