Pollen-based Holocene quantitative temperature reconstruction on the eastern Tibetan Plateau using a comprehensive method framework

Quantitative climate reconstruction on long timescales can provide important insights for understanding the climate variability and providing valuable data for simulations. Unfortunately, the credibility of some attempts was hampered by incomplete reconstruction procedures. We here establish a compr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science China. Earth sciences 2020-08, Vol.63 (8), p.1144-1160
Main Authors: Liang, Chen, Zhao, Yan, Qin, Feng, Zheng, Zhuo, Xiao, Xiayun, Ma, Chunmei, Li, Huan, Zhao, Wenwei
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Climate
Climate models
Climate variability
Climatic analysis
Computer simulation
Cooling
Earth and Environmental Science
Earth Sciences
Ecological effects
Factor analysis
Frameworks
Holocene
Mathematical models
Periodicity
Plant control
Pollen
Research Paper
Statistical analysis
Temperature
Temperature changes
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Summary:Quantitative climate reconstruction on long timescales can provide important insights for understanding the climate variability and providing valuable data for simulations. Unfortunately, the credibility of some attempts was hampered by incomplete reconstruction procedures. We here establish a comprehensive framework resting on high-quality Chinese modern pollen database, including modern pollen data screening, calibration set selection, major climate factor analysis, appropriate model selection, strict statistical assessment of results and ecological interpretation. The application of this framework to three high-resolution pollen records from the eastern Tibetan Plateau allows accurate quantitative inferences of Holocene temperature changes, which is the major control of regional vegetation. The results show that the mean warmest month temperature (MT wa ) during the early Holocene was ca. 10.4°C and reached the highest value at 8.5–6 ka BP (ca. 11°C). The early and mid-Holocene (11–5 ka BP) warmth was followed by 1.2°C temperature decrease, culminating in the coolest temperatures of the Holocene during the Neoglacial cooling. Superimposing on the general cooling trend, MT wa reveals a significant 500-yr periodicity with varying intensities through time, showing that warm (cold) intervals are in phase with solar maxima (minima) periods. This spectral similarity indicates a possible connection of multi-century scale climate fluctuations with solar forcing.
ISSN:1674-7313
1869-1897
DOI:10.1007/s11430-019-9599-y