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A multi-proxy record of climate variations over the last millennium from Kulun-nuur Lake sediments, Inner Mongolia, north-central China

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Abstract

Reconstructing climate change over the last millennium is important for understanding natural climate variability and improving global climatic prediction. Precipitation variations from different records in north-central China, especially in the EASM margin area, are controversial. Here, we present a multi-proxy (grain size, pollen, TOC and TOC/TN ratio) record from Kulun-nuur Lake in east-central Inner Mongolia as an archive of moisture variations over the last millennium. Our record reveals that the Kulun-nuur Lake area is characterized by a wet Medieval Warm Period (MWP; 900–1300 AD), a dry Little Ice Age (LIA; 1300–1820 AD) and a relatively wet Current Warm Period (CWP; 1820 AD to present). In addition, within the context of an overall wet climate during the MWP, a short-term relatively dry episode occurred from 1000 to 1070 AD. The climate patterns reconstructed from Kulun-nuur Lake display good consistency with other records and models, suggesting that warm-wet/cold-dry are the main climate patterns in north-central China during the last millennium. These patterns of regional hydrological changes on multi-decadal to centennial scales may be related to solar activity and the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Mr. Guanglin Yang, Ms. Songmei Tong and Ms. Lin Sun at the Institute of Hydrogeology and Environmental Geology, CAGS for their assistance with the laboratory analyses and graphs. We are grateful to JOPL co-editor-in-chief Thomas J. Whitmore, associate editor Steffen Mischke and two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments, which significantly improved the quality of the manuscript. This study was financially supported by the Grants from the Basic Research Program of Institute of Hydrogeology and Environmental Geology CAGS (Grant No. SK201503 and SK202007), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41602194) and the Doctoral Startup Foundation of Shijiazhuang University (Grant No. 20BS028). We acknowledge American Journal Experts (AJE) for English language editing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Hydrogeology and Environmental Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Shijiazhuang, 050061, China

    Xin Mao, Dejun Wan, Lei Song, Jingsong Yang, Linjing Liu & Gaolei Jiang

  2. Key Laboratory of Quaternary Chronology and Hydrological-Environment Evolution, China Geological Survey, Shijiazhuang, 050061, China

    Xin Mao, Dejun Wan, Lei Song, Jingsong Yang, Linjing Liu & Gaolei Jiang

  3. College of Resource Environment and Tourism, Capital Normal University, Beijing, 100048, China

    Xin Mao & Xingqi Liu

  4. Faculty of Resources and Environmental Science, Shijiazhuang University, Shijiazhuang, 050035, China

    Junfeng Li

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  1. Xin Mao
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Mao, X., Wan, D., Song, L. et al. A multi-proxy record of climate variations over the last millennium from Kulun-nuur Lake sediments, Inner Mongolia, north-central China. J Paleolimnol 66, 103–116 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-021-00189-7

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