Reconstructing holocene palaeorunoff regimes from palaeoclimate: An initial attempt to apply a climatological approach to palaeohydrology for the north China plain

Abstract

Employing the regression equations relating mean annual runoff to mean annual temperature and mean annual precipitation derived with modern data, palaeorunoff values were calculated from palaeoclimatic information for three localities in the eastern part of the North China Plain (37 – 41°N, 115 – 120°E) during the last 12 000 years. These results present a general pattern of temporal and spatial variations of the Holocene palaeorunoff occurring in this region. The annual runoff was the highest during 8000 – 3000 a B.P., the second high during 12 000 – 8000 a B.P., and the lowest during 3000 – 0 a B.P. Spatially the annual runoff was the highest at the downstream area of the Luanhe River in the north, the second highest at the area around Beijing in the middle, and the lowest at the area around Xingtai in the southwest. These results were further compared to other palaeohydrological reconstruction achieved by other researchers or with other methods, which usually indicates the similar trend of hydrological changes for this region.