Chinese scientific team unveils diverse factors driving climate change across Asia
A team of Chinese scientists has successfully identified factors driving diverse climate change across Asia over the past 130,000 years, marking an advance in studying dust accumulation, moisture evolution, and driving mechanisms across multiple spatial and temporal scales in Asia, according to Lanzhou University.
“Published in the journal Science Advances, this study provides a long-term timescale benchmark for predicting future climate change trends,” said Li Guoqiang, professor at the Faculty of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Lanzhou University, to Xinhua.
“The study also offers significant scientific basis for analysing Asia’s drying trends, rainfall pattern changes, and dust activity risks amid global warming conditions,” he added.
Climate change in Asia is influenced by several large-scale circulation systems, including mid-latitude westerlies, East and South Asian summer monsoons, and East Asian winter monsoons. Fluctuations in the strength and weakness of these climate systems and their interactions have profoundly shaped hydroclimatic patterns in the region and broadly impacted both the living environment and social development of local populations.
Previously, there was considerable controversy regarding the evolutionary processes and driving mechanisms of various climate systems and their impacts on spatial differences in climate change across Asia, according to Li.
Loess-paleosol sequences across Asia provide an important archive of past dust deposition and climate dynamics shaped by westerlies and the Asian monsoon. By applying new potassium feldspar infrared luminescence dating technology, the study team systematically established a high-resolution dating framework for more than 20 loess-paleosol sequences in the arid regions of Central Asia and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
Working with researchers from more than 30 universities and institutions within and outside China, the study team compiled and released the world’s first dataset on Asian loess luminescence dating and palaeo-climate proxy indicators, providing an important database for comprehensive research at the continental scale of Asia.
The study results demonstrate that dust accumulation in Asia is not a single response to variations in winter wind strength. Loess accumulation in various regions is simultaneously influenced by multiple factors, including material supply, vegetation coverage, local topography, sea-level fluctuations, and human activity.
Meanwhile, the discontinuity of loess sediment strata is widespread across various regions of Asia at the end of the late Quaternary period, and wind erosion may be the main cause, according to the study results.
“Our study for the first time comprehensively reconstructed the history of dust accumulation and moisture change in Asia over the past 130,000 years at the continental scale. This provides important new evidence for understanding climate change processes and their driving mechanisms in Asia across different timescales,” said Li.
The study has also deepened understanding of the mechanisms underlying the evolution of Asia’s climate systems on a more scientific basis. Meanwhile, the study has also established an important reference sequence regarding moisture and rainfall for assessing the long-term evolution of climate systems, according to Li.