A multi-proxy record of climate variations over the last millennium from Kulun-nuur Lake sediments, Inner Mongolia, north-central China

Abstract

Reconstructing climate change over the last millennium is important for understanding natural climate variability and improving global climatic prediction. Precipitation variations from different records in north-central China, especially in the EASM margin area, are controversial. Here, we present a multi-proxy (grain size, pollen, TOC and TOC/TN ratio) record from Kulun-nuur Lake in east-central Inner Mongolia as an archive of moisture variations over the last millennium. Our record reveals that the Kulun-nuur Lake area is characterized by a wet Medieval Warm Period (MWP; 900–1300 AD), a dry Little Ice Age (LIA; 1300–1820 AD) and a relatively wet Current Warm Period (CWP; 1820 AD to present). In addition, within the context of an overall wet climate during the MWP, a short-term relatively dry episode occurred from 1000 to 1070 AD. The climate patterns reconstructed from Kulun-nuur Lake display good consistency with other records and models, suggesting that warm-wet/cold-dry are the main climate patterns in north-central China during the last millennium. These patterns of regional hydrological changes on multi-decadal to centennial scales may be related to solar activity and the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation.