Climate change over the past 2000 years in Western China
Climate change over the past 2000 years in Western China
复制标题
中国西部2000年来的气候变化
DOI：
10.1016/j.quaint.2007.10.013
复制
发表时间：
2009-02-01
影响因子：
2.2
通讯作者：
Yang, Bao
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Holmes, Jonathan A.;Cook, Edward R.;Yang, Bao
中国西部是指中华人民共和国中华人民共和国的西、南、北三面，以及西藏和阿拉善高原的东部，是一个重要的气候区，受亚洲和印度夏季风、中纬度西风带和干燥寒冷的中亚冬季风的影响。青藏高原本身是一个突出的地形特征，对区域大气环流具有重要的控制作用。以往的气象资料汇编和文献资料表明，中国西部，特别是青藏高原，是高度敏感的气候变化的人为因素。气温的上升似乎在较高的海拔最大：此外，降水量的变化似乎很明显，虽然空间上很复杂。该区域包含了从仪器、文献和代用资料来源获得的关于过去气候的丰富信息，尽管气象时间序列一般太短，无法反映最近气候变异的全部范围。因此，文件和代理来源很重要。我们回顾了过去两千年来中国西部气候变化的研究。文件记录得到了冰芯、树木年轮、湖泊沉积物、地下水剖面和冰川地貌的替代数据的补充。虽然可以确定变化的一般模式，但过去气候的代用记录往往充其量是半定量的，可以有不同的解释，有时日期也不明确。尽管有证据表明在过去的2000年里气候发生了显著的变化，但世纪的变化，特别是温度的变化，可能是前所未有的。中国西部地区的数据点密度目前太低，空间格局，特别是在降水变化的识别。然而，在最近的过去，随着海拔的升高，变暖似乎确实有所增加。(C)2007 Elsevier Ltd和INQUA。All rights reserved.
Western China, defined here as the land falling within the geographical boundaries of the People's Republic of China in the west, south and north, and the approximate eastern extent of the Tibetan and Alaxa Plateaux to the east, occupies an important climatic region, influenced by the Asian and Indian summer monsoons, the mid-latitude westerlies and the dry, cold central Asian winter monsoon. The Tibetan Plateau itself is a prominent topographic feature that exerts major control on regional atmospheric circulation. Previous compilations of meteorological data and documentary sources suggest that western China, and the Tibetan Plateau in particular, is highly sensitive to anthropogenically induced climate change. Temperature increases appear to be greatest at higher altitudes: moreover, precipitation variations seem to have been marked, although spatially complex. The region contains a wealth of information about past climate derived from instrumental, documentary and proxy sources although meteorological time series are generally too short to capture the full range of recent climatic variability. Documentary and proxy sources are therefore important. We review studies of climate change in western China for the past two millennia. Documentary records are complemented by proxy data from ice cores, tree rings, lake sediments, groundwater profiles and glacial geomorphology. Although general patterns of change can be identified, proxy records of past climate are often semi-quantitative at best, open to alternative interpretations and sometimes poorly dated. Despite evidence for marked variations in climate over the past 2000 years, changes during the 20th century, especially in temperature, may have been unprecedented. The density of data points over western China is currently too low for spatial patterns to be identified, especially in precipitation variation. However, there does seem to have been an increase in warming with altitude over the most recent past. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved.