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The Late Quaternary Hydrological Changes in the Eastern Tarim Basin Inferred From 10 Be Exposure Ages of River Terraces
Author(s) -
Gu Zhaoyan,
Zhang Junjie,
Lv Yanwu,
Wang Haizhi,
Xu Bing,
Guo Xiaona
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: atmospheres
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2169-8996
pISSN - 2169-897X
DOI - 10.1029/2021jd035022
Subject(s) - surface runoff , meltwater , climate change , arid , structural basin , hydrology (agriculture) , northern hemisphere , paleoclimatology , quaternary , geology , drainage basin , river terraces , physical geography , environmental science , climatology , glacial period , fluvial , geomorphology , geography , paleontology , oceanography , ecology , geotechnical engineering , cartography , biology
Reliable information on the dynamics of hydrological changes is crucial for the social and economic stabilities and sustaining developments in arid Central Asia. However, the few long‐term hydrological records limit understanding of the relationship between meltwater runoff and climate changes, because the short‐term observations show a paradoxical runoff trend with climate warming across Central Asia. Here, we made a systematic analysis on the 10 Be exposure ages of the river terraces developed in the eastern Tarim Basin and reconstructed the hydrological regime changes during the past 170 ka. These data, together with the ages of the river terraces in the water source areas, suggest that the exposure ages of river terraces in the eastern Tarim Basin reflect the depositional time of alluvial sediments. The meltwater runoff displays an inverse relation with the North Hemisphere Summer Insolation and temperature changes on both orbital and millennial time scale, indicating that low temperatures favor high runoff fluxes. The observed correlation between the hydrological regimes and temperature changes suggests that the runoff will decrease and thus climate will become drying with global warming in arid Central Asia.