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Ref ID: 30334
Ref Type: Journal Article
Authors: Cheng-Bang An,
Zhao-Dong Feng,
Barton, Loukas
Title: Dry or humid? Mid-Holocene humidity changes in arid and semi-arid China
Date: 2006
Source: Quaternary Science Reviews
Abstract: Spatial changes of effective moisture during the mid-Holocene have been reconstructed based on the compilation of recently published paleoclimate records, including ice core, lake level, pollen assemblage, and loess-paleosol records. Both geological data and the spatial pattern indicate that it was dry in deserts during the mid-Holocene, but the timing of the beginning and end of dry intervals differs from place to place. Deserts having higher aridity index values remain dry longer. Dry intervals during the mid-Holocene are more possibly asynchronous than synchronous in arid and semi-arid China. In the Xinjiang region, except in sites located in deserts, the climate is generally wet during 7000–5000 a BP. In the northern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, effective moisture in most sites began to decrease after 5000 a BP. The climate became dry after 4000 a BP except in the deserts in the Loess Plateau and the Inner Mongolia Plateau.
Date Created: 2/13/2006
Volume: 25
Page Start: 351
Page End: 361

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