Abstract
Abstract. Using six long-term temperature proxy data series derived from different natural evidences, including pollens and lake-sediments, we reconstructed a temperature series with a 100-yr time resolution for the past 5000 yr in the Hetao region and its surrounding areas. The resulting series suggests that, on a millennial timescale, temperatures in the region were higher than the mean value of the whole series during the 5000~2600 years before present (yr BP) period, and became relatively low comparing with the average temperature of the whole series after 2600 yr BP. Within these two periods, temperature fluctuations comprising numerous short, multi-centennial intervals also existed. A comparison between our reconstructed series and other series in China and across the Northern Hemisphere indicate that, on a long-term scale, cold–warm variations had been in phase across the whole hemisphere during the past 5000 years; on the century to multi-century scale, the beginning and the ending times varied from region to region, thus implying that climate changes did not occur simultaneously in different regions.
Highlights
The reconstruction of temperature series for various historical periods provides important background for understanding the patterns of natural climate variability and improves our ability to assess the anthropogenic role in observed modern climate change
A number of previous studies have focused on climate change of past few centuries to millennium by means of modeling experiments that employ estimated climate forcing and empirical reconstructions based on climate proxy data (Mann et al, 2003)
Taking the actual background of the study area into consideration, we developed an improved method to reconstruct the regional temperature series of the small Hetao region
Summary
The reconstruction of temperature series for various historical periods provides important background for understanding the patterns of natural climate variability and improves our ability to assess the anthropogenic role in observed modern climate change. A number of previous studies have focused on climate change of past few centuries to millennium by means of modeling experiments that employ estimated climate forcing and empirical reconstructions based on climate proxy data (Mann et al, 2003). Several recent studies emphasized spatial reconstruction of climate based on techniques for reconstruction of multivariate climate fields (Mann et al, 1998, 1999, 2003, 2008; Luterbacher et al, 2002; Evans et al, 2003; Moberg et al, 2005). These spatial reconstructions have focused on the climate changes of the past few centuries to two millennia on a global scale. The uncertainty of reconstructing climatic changes can be reduced by using the method
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