COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: Century-Scale Variability in the Asian Southwest Monsoon

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This award is for a collaborative project (between University of Arizona, Louisiana State University, and Academia Sinica, China) to use proven methods to provide the first systematic study of century-scale SW Asian Monsoon variability. The project will focus on Tibet, where earlier work has demonstrated strong monsoonal influences, and where the investigators know they can obtain well-dated lake sediment records characterized by century-scale variability. By comparing high resolution, multiproxy (sedimentologial, geochemical and paleoecological) records along a sensitive east-west climate gradient, they will be able to separate the regional (monsoonal) climate signal from site-specific environmental influences. Moreover, they will be able to discern if any observed monsoonal events are time-transgressive or not, and also be able to quantify the sensitivity and rate of response of three different important vegetation types to century-scale climate events.