Collaborative Research: Dunefield Records of Late Quaternary Climatic Change, Northern China

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The objective of this project is to develop new records of late Quaternary climatic change. It is designed specifically to yield a composite record of dune activity and associated hydrologic change and dust production from the Last Glacial Maximum to the present, as well as indicating past changes in the East Asian monsoon circulation. These results will derive from stratigraphic and geomorphic evidence preserved in dune fields distributed across northern China. The work will be undertaken collaboratively by scientists in North America and China, and will promote training and learning through the involvement of graduate and undergraduate students in both laboratory and field work. Questions this research is designed to resolve are: a) the relative magnitude of change in the monsoon system at orbital and millennial timescales; b) the timing and abruptness of change at the orbital timescale and the degree to which they are reproduced by model experiments, and c) the synchroneity of millennial-scale climatic change across northern China, as well as on hemispheric and global scales. While the record at any given study site may be incomplete and open to multiple interpretations, a composite record from many different geomorphic settings is expected to provide relatively straightforward, potentially quantitative paleoclimatic information. This landscape-scale record will also be valuable in assessing the importance of land-surface feedbacks in the monsoon system.