Premium
Summer monsoon moisture variability over China and Mongolia during the past four centuries
Author(s) -
Li Jinbao,
Cook Edward R.,
Chen Fahu,
Davi Nicole,
D'Arrigo Rosanne,
Gou Xiaohua,
Wright Wiliam E.,
Fang Keyan,
Jin Liya,
Shi Jiangfeng,
Yang Tao
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2009gl041162
Subject(s) - monsoon , east asian monsoon , climatology , northern hemisphere , china , famine , period (music) , climate change , southern hemisphere , scale (ratio) , monsoon of south asia , geography , geology , physical geography , oceanography , archaeology , cartography , physics , acoustics
A great impediment of Asian monsoon (AM) climate studies is the general lack of long‐term observations of large‐scale monsoon variability. Here we present a well‐verified reconstruction of temporal changes in the dominant summer moisture pattern over China and Mongolia (CM), based on a network of tree‐ring chronologies (1600–1991). The reconstruction reveals significant changes in the large‐scale AM over the past four centuries, which coincide with dramatic episodes in Chinese history over the period of record. These episodes include the fall of the Ming Dynasty (AD 1644) and the catastrophic famine during China's Great Leap Forward (1958–1961). Overall, the reconstructed AM strength corresponds well with Northern Hemisphere temperature proxies over the past four centuries. Yet, this relationship has broken down in recent decades, raising the possibility that the major driving force of monsoon dynamics has shifted from natural to anthropogenic in nature.