The East Asian summer monsoon variability over the last 145 years inferred from the Shihua Cave record, North China

The precipitation variability associated with the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) has profound societal implications. Here, we use precisely dated and seasonally-resolved stalagmite oxygen isotope (δ 18 O) records from Shihua Cave, North China to reconstruct the EASM variability over the last 145 y...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2017-08, Vol.7 (1), p.7078-7078, Article 7078
Main Authors: Li, Xianglei, Cheng, Hai, Tan, Liangcheng, Ban, Fengmei, Sinha, Ashish, Duan, Wuhui, Li, Hanying, Zhang, Haiwei, Ning, Youfeng, Kathayat, Gayatri, Edwards, R. Lawrence
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
704/106/413
704/2151/209
Anthropogenic factors
Earth science
Geology
Humanities and Social Sciences
Laboratories
Monsoons
multidisciplinary
Oceans
Oxygen isotopes
Periodicity
Precipitation
Rainfall
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Summer
Wind
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Summary:The precipitation variability associated with the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) has profound societal implications. Here, we use precisely dated and seasonally-resolved stalagmite oxygen isotope (δ 18 O) records from Shihua Cave, North China to reconstruct the EASM variability over the last 145 years. Our record shows a remarkable weakening of the EASM strength since the 1880s, which may be causally linked to the warming of the tropical Pacific and Indian Oceans. The δ 18 O record also exhibits a significant ~30-year periodicity, consistent with the instrumental, historical and proxy-based rainfall records from North China, plausibly driven by the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO). Together, these observations imply that ~30-year periodicity is a persistent feature of the EASM, which remains significant with or without anthropogenic forcing. If indeed, the EASM rainfall in North China might decline significantly in the near future, which may affect millions of people in this region.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-017-07251-3