Combination of Tree Rings and Other Paleoclimate Proxies to Explore the East Asian Summer Monsoon and Solar Irradiance Signals: A Case Study on the North China Plain

Paleoclimate research, which involves the study of climate and environmental changes in historical and geological periods, is typically conducted using high-resolution paleoclimatic proxies, such as tree rings, historical documentations, stalagmite, and ice core. Although each paleoclimate proxy has its own merits in paleoclimatic research, reconstructions based on a single proxy may suffer from shortcomings, including insufficient reliability and low coverage of the representative area. It may be possible to overcome these shortcomings by combining multi-paleoclimatic proxies to understand paleoclimatic changes. In this study, we attempt to combine tree-ring stable oxygen isotope ratio (δ18O), tree-ring width, and stalagmite thickness data as well as historical records to establish a 320-year (1675–1994) time series using principal component analysis in the water-scarce North China Plain (NCP). The results show that the first principal component (PC1) series is closely related to regional precipitation and the maximum temperature in summer. The spatial correlation pattern indicates that the PC1 series can represent the regional hydroclimate variation not only in the NCP but also in all of northern China. The significant (p < 0.001) correlations between the PC1 series and several East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) indices prove that the PC1 reflects the intensity of the EASM. The PC1 series is consistent with the interannual variations of two reconstructed solar activity correlation indexes (r = 0.48 and 0.46, n = 320, and p < 0.001). The results indicate that the hydroclimate variation in the NCP is affected by large-scale atmospheric circulations, such as EASM and solar activity, and shows the potential of combining multiple paleoclimate proxies for analyzing regional climate change.

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Subseasonal characteristics and the meteorological causes of surface O3 in different East Asian summer monsoon periods over the North China Plain during 2014 - 2019

Atmospheric Environment ◽

10.1016/j.atmosenv.2021.118704 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 118704

Author(s):

Libo Gao ◽

Tijian Wang ◽

Xuejuan Ren ◽

Danyang Ma ◽

Bingliang Zhuang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Summer Monsoon ◽

East Asian Summer Monsoon ◽

North China Plain ◽

North China ◽

Asian Summer Monsoon ◽

East Asian ◽

The North ◽

The North China Plain ◽

Asian Summer ◽

Surface O3

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A high-resolution sediment record of East Asian summer monsoon from the northern South China Sea spanning the past 7500 years

The Holocene ◽

10.1177/0959683620950445 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 30 (12) ◽

pp. 1669-1680

Author(s):

Chao Huang ◽

Mingkun Li ◽

Zhifeng Liu ◽

Gangjian Wei ◽

Fajin Chen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Grain Size ◽

Solar Activity ◽

High Resolution ◽

South China Sea ◽

South China ◽

East Asian Summer Monsoon ◽

Asian Summer Monsoon ◽

East Asian ◽

Sediment Records ◽

Asian Summer

High-resolution Holocene marine sediment records are limited, which hampers our understanding of paleomonsoon evolution. Continental shelf sediment records are derived mainly from terrestrial weathering products and are thus often sensitive to paleoclimate variations. In this study, the grain size and magnetic mineral composition of a well-dated sediment core (YJ Core) from the northern inner shelf of the South China Sea (SCS) were analyzed to provide a high-resolution record of the Holocene evolution of the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM). These magnetic and grain size records indicate that EASM intensity followed a general declining trend between approximately 6800 and 2000 cal yr BP. This general pattern is synchronous with other geologic archives from monsoon regions, and can be attributed to solar radiation forcing in the Northern Hemisphere. On centennial timescales, a weak EASM closely coincides with periods of weak solar activity. In addition, spectral analysis of clays reveals five prominent cycles, with periodicities of approximately 364, 202, 158, 119, and 104 years, which correspond to solar activity cycles. The similarities between the cyclicities of the Asian monsoon signal in sedimentary records and those of solar activity demonstrate that solar forcing has a relatively large influence on the centennial-scale variability of the EASM.

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80 yr oscillation of summer rainfall over North China and East Asian Summer Monsoon

Geophysical Research Letters ◽

10.1029/2001gl013997 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 29 (14) ◽

pp. 17-1-17-4 ◽

Cited By ~ 25

Author(s):

Jinhong Zhu ◽

Shaowu Wang

Keyword(s):

Summer Monsoon ◽

East Asian Summer Monsoon ◽

North China ◽

Asian Summer Monsoon ◽

East Asian ◽

Summer Rainfall ◽

Asian Summer

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Warm-season hydroclimate variability in Central China since 1866 AD and its relations with the East Asian Summer Monsoon: evidence from tree-ring earlywood width

10.5194/cp-2018-141 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Yesi Zhao ◽

Jiangfeng Shi ◽

Shiyuan Shi ◽

Xiaoqi Ma ◽

Weijie Zhang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Tree Ring ◽

Summer Monsoon ◽

East Asian Summer Monsoon ◽

Asian Summer Monsoon ◽

East Asian ◽

Central China ◽

Qinling Mountains ◽

Hydroclimate Variability ◽

Asian Summer ◽

Earlywood Width

Abstract. Historical hydroclimate records derived from tree-ring parameters are scarce in the core region of East Asian Summer Monsoon (EASM) in China, limiting our understanding of the inter-decadal hydroclimate variability of this region and its possible connections with the EASM. In this study, standard chronologies of total tree-ring width (TRW), earlywood width (EWW), and latewood width (LWW) were created using tree-ring samples of Pinus tabulaeformis in the eastern Qinling Mountains, Central China. The strongest growth-climate relationship was found between EWW and May–July self-calibrated Palmer Drought Severity Index (MJJ scPDSI). Therefore, a linear regression model, which explained 50.3 % of the variance in MJJ scPDSI (1951–2005), was developed to estimate the past MJJ scPDSI variations using EWW. The time series of MJJ scPDSI was extended back to the year 1866, and validated by independent hydroclimate series from nearby regions. Before the mid-1950s, the variations of MJJ scPDSI were in-phase with those of EASM intensity on decadal and longer timescales, suggesting that wet conditions would occur in the eastern Qinling Mountains when EASM was strengthened. Since the mid-1950s, however, the relationship has been out-of-phase. This phase change may be associated with an intensified dipole pattern of EASM precipitation.

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Decadal Variations of the East Asian Summer Monsoon Forced by the 11-Year Insolation Cycle

Journal of Climate ◽

10.1175/jcli-d-18-0288.1 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 32 (10) ◽

pp. 2735-2745 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Chunhan Jin ◽

Jian Liu ◽

Bin Wang ◽

Mi Yan ◽

Liang Ning

Keyword(s):

Solar Activity ◽

Solar Cycle ◽

Summer Monsoon ◽

North Pacific ◽

East Asian Summer Monsoon ◽

Asian Summer Monsoon ◽

East Asian ◽

Decadal Variation ◽

Solar Forcing ◽

Asian Summer

Statistical evidence suggests that solar activity may affect the atmospheric circulation over East Asia (EA), but the way in which the 11-yr solar radiation cycle affects the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) remains unexplained. Based on one control experiment and four solar-only forcing experiments performed during the Community Earth System Model–Last Millennium Ensemble (CESM-LME) model project, we explore the potential impacts of the 11-yr solar cycle on EASM variability and the physical processes through which solar forcing influences EASM decadal variability. The model results show that the warm season [May–September (MJJAS)] mean precipitation over EA exhibits significant decadal variation with a “northern wet–southern dry” pattern during peak years in the strong 11-yr solar cycle epoch (AD 900–1285), which is in contrast to the absence of decadal signals during the weak 11-yr solar cycle epoch (AD 1400–1535). For the four-member ensemble averaged solar-only forcing experiment, the summer mean precipitation over northern EA is significantly correlated with the solar forcing ( r = 0.414, n = 68, p < 0.05) on a decadal time scale during the strong cycle epoch, whereas there is no statistical link between the EASM and solar activity during the weak cycle epoch ( r = 0.002, n = 24). A strong, 11-yr solar cycle is also shown to excite an anomalous sea surface temperature (SST) pattern that resembles a cool Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO) phase, which has a significant 11-yr periodicity. The associated anomalous North Pacific anticyclone dominates the entire extratropical North Pacific and enhances the southerly monsoon over EA, which results in abundant rainfall over northern EA. We argue that the 11-yr solar cycle affects the EASM decadal variation through excitation of a coupled decadal mode in the Asia–North Pacific region.

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A Lagrangian Analysis of Water Vapor Sources and Pathways for Precipitation in East China in Different Stages of the East Asian Summer Monsoon

Journal of Climate ◽

10.1175/jcli-d-19-0089.1 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 33 (3) ◽

pp. 977-992 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Yi Shi ◽

Zhihong Jiang ◽

Zhengyu Liu ◽

Laurent Li

Keyword(s):

Water Vapor ◽

Summer Monsoon ◽

East Asian Summer Monsoon ◽

North China ◽

Asian Summer Monsoon ◽

East Asian ◽

Seasonal Migration ◽

East China ◽

Terminal Stage ◽

Asian Summer

AbstractThe Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) platform is used to simulate Lagrangian trajectories of air parcels in East China during the summer monsoon. The investigation includes four distinct stages of the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) during its seasonal migration from south to north. Correspondingly, the main water vapor channel migrates from the west Pacific Ocean (PO) for the premonsoon in South China (SC) to the Indian Ocean (IO) for the monsoon in SC and in the Yangtze–Huaihe River basin, and finally back to the PO for the terminal stage of monsoon in North China. Further calculations permit us to determine water vapor source regions and water vapor contribution to precipitation in East China. To a large extent, moisture leading to precipitation does not come from the strongest water vapor pathways. For example, the proportions of trajectories from the IO are larger than 25% all of the time, but moisture contributions to actual precipitation are smaller than 10%. This can be explained by the large amount of water vapor lost in the pathways across moisture-losing areas such as the Indian and Indochina Peninsulas. Local water vapor recycling inside East China (EC) contributes significantly to regional precipitation, with contributions mostly over 30%, although the trajectory proportions from subregions in EC are all under 10%. This contribution rate can even exceed 55% for the terminal stage of the monsoon in North China. Such a result provides important guidance to understand the role of land surface conditions in modulating rainfall in North China.

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