Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
9462567 | Global and Planetary Change | 2005 | 16 Pages |
Abstract
South China Sea (SCS) is a major moisture source region, providing summer monsoon rainfall throughout Mainland China, which accounts for more than 80% total precipitation in the region. We report seasonal to monthly resolution Sr/Ca and δ18O data for five Holocene and one modern Porites corals, each covering a growth history of 9-13 years. The results reveal a general decreasing trend in sea surface temperature (SST) in the SCS from â¼6800 to 1500 years ago, despite shorter climatic cycles. Compared with the mean Sr/Ca-SST in the 1990s (24.8 °C), 10-year mean Sr/Ca-SSTs were 0.9-0.5 °C higher between 6.8 and 5.0 thousand years before present (ky BP), dropped to the present level by â¼2.5 ky BP, and reached a low of 22.6 °C (2.2 °C lower) by â¼1.5 ky BP. The summer Sr/Ca-SST maxima, which are more reliable due to faster summer-time growth rates and higher sampling resolution, follow the same trend, i.e. being 1-2 °C higher between 6.8 and 5.0 ky BP, dropping to the present level by â¼2.5 ky BP, and reaching a low of 28.7 °C (0.7 °C lower) by â¼1.5 ky BP. Such a decline in SST is accompanied by a similar decrease in the amount of monsoon moisture transported out of South China Sea, resulting in a general decrease in the seawater δ18O values, reflected by offsets of mean δ18O relative to that in the 1990s. This observation is consistent with general weakening of the East Asian summer monsoon since early Holocene, in response to a continuous decline in solar radiation, which was also found in pollen, lake-level and loess/paleosol records throughout Mainland China. The climatic conditions â¼2.5 and â¼1.5 ky ago were also recorded in Chinese history. In contrast with the general cooling trend of the monsoon climate in East Asia, SST increased dramatically in recent time, with that in the 1990s being 2.2 °C warmer than that â¼1.5 ky ago. This clearly indicates that the increase in the concentration of anthropogenic greenhouse gases played a dominant role in recent global warming, which reversed the natural climatic trend in East Asian monsoon regime.
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering
Earth and Planetary Sciences
Earth-Surface Processes
Authors
Ke-Fu Yu, Jian-Xin Zhao, Gang-Jian Wei, Xin-Rong Cheng, Pin-Xian Wang,