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Peat humification- and δ13Ccellulose-recorded warm-season moisture variations during the past 500 years in the southern Altai Mountains within northern Xinjiang of China

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Abstract

To predict future spatio-temporal patterns of climate change, we should fully understand the spatio-temporal patterns of climate change during the past millennium. But, we are not yet able to delineate the patterns because the qualities of the retrieved proxy records and the spatial coverage of those records are not adequate. Northern Xinjiang of China is one of such areas where the records are not adequate. Here, we present a 500-yr land-surface moisture sequence from Heiyangpo Peat (48.34°N, 87.18°E, 1353 m a.s.l) in the southern Altai Mountains within northern Xinjiang. Specifically, peat carbon isotope value of cellulose (δ13Ccellulose) was used to estimate the warm-season moisture variations and the degree of humification was used to constrain the δ13Ccellulose-based hydrological interpretation. The climatic attributions of the interpreted hydrological variations were based on the warm-season temperature reconstructed from Belukha ice core and the warm-season precipitation inferred from the reconstructed Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillations (AMO). The results show that humification decreased and the δ13Ccellulose-suggested moisture decreased from ~1510 to ~1775 AD, implying that a constant drying condition may have inhibited peat decay. Our comparison with reconstructed climatic parameters suggests that the moisture-level decline was most likely resulted from a constant decline of precipitation. The results also show that humification kept a stable level and the δ13Ccellulose-suggested moisture also decreased from ~1775 to ~2013 AD, implying that peat decay in the acrotelm primarily did not depend on the water availability or an aerobic environment. Again, our comparison with reconstructed climatic parameters suggests that the land-surface moisturelevel decline was most likely resulted from a steady warming of growing-season temperature.

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Acknowledgement

This research was financially supported by Chinese Natural Science International Cooperation Program Foundation Grant (No. 41361140361), Chinese Natural Science Foundation Grant (No. U1203821L08) and Chinese Academy Sciences International Cooperation Program (No. GJHZ201315). We thank Prof. Nurbayev Abdusalih for his help in identifying plant residues.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi, 830011, China

    Dong-liang Zhang & Yun-peng Yang

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Dong-liang Zhang & Yun-peng Yang

  3. School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Chongqing Three Gorges University, Chongqing, 404000, China

    Bo Lan

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Zhang, Dl., Yang, Yp. & Lan, B. Peat humification- and δ13Ccellulose-recorded warm-season moisture variations during the past 500 years in the southern Altai Mountains within northern Xinjiang of China. J. Mt. Sci. 14, 2200–2211 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11629-017-4538-1

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