Palaeomonsoon vicissitudes in eastern desert region of China since last interglacial period

Abstract

Based on the geological records, the palaeomonsoon in eastern desert region of China is divided into three major evolution stages, i.e. summer monsoon prevailing stage of last interglacial period (130-70kaB.P.), winter monsoon prevailing stage of last glacial period (70-10 kaB.P.), and unstable summer monsoon prevailing stage of postglacial period (10 kaB.P. to present) and further divided into several substages. The conversion between summer monsoon and winter monsoon in the region is dominated by the sudden change process. The north limit of summer monsoon in the region retreated to the north limit of sandy loess zone of the Loess Plateau in the last glacial period from the Mazong Mts.-Ulan Bator of last interglacial period, then it entered Shandan-Yabrai region in the optimum period of the Holocene, and finally it retreated to the present extended line from north piedmont of the Yinshan Mts to Hulun Buir. This shows that the summer monsoon caused by East Asian monsoon circulation tends to be weakened fluctuationally. However, the factors affecting the monsoon vicissitudes are complex, so special attention should be paid to the study of the short-period climatic fluctuations of the Holocene.