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Title: Modeling precipitation <i>δ</i><sup>18</sup>O variability in East Asia since the Last Glacial Maximum: temperature and amount effects across different timescales

Abstract

Water isotopes in precipitation have played a key role in the reconstruction of past climate on millennial timescales and longer. However, for midlatitude regions like East Asia with complex terrain, the reliability behind the basic assumptions of the temperature effect and amount effect is based on modern observational data and still remains unclear for past climate. In the present work, we reexamine the two basic effects on seasonal, interannual, and millennial timescales in a set of time slice experiments for the period 22–0 ka using an isotope-enabled atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM). Our study confirms the robustness of the temperature and amount effects on the seasonal cycle over China in the present climatic conditions, with the temperature effect dominating in northern China and the amount effect dominating in the far south of China but no distinct effect in the transition region of central China. However, our analysis shows that neither temperature nor amount effect is significantly dominant over China on millennial and interannual timescales, which is a challenge to those classic assumptions in past climate reconstruction. Our work helps shed light on the interpretation of the proxy record of δ18O from a modeling point of view.

Authors:
; ; ; ; ; ;
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Peking Univ., Beijing (China). Dept. of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE
OSTI Identifier:
1332379
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1375433
Grant/Contract Number:  
41130105; 41130962; 41005035; YETP0005
Resource Type:
Published Article
Journal Name:
Climate of the Past (Online)
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Name: Climate of the Past (Online) Journal Volume: 12 Journal Issue: 11; Journal ID: ISSN 1814-9332
Publisher:
Copernicus Publications, EGU
Country of Publication:
Germany
Language:
English
Subject:
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Citation Formats

Wen, Xinyu, Liu, Zhengyu, Chen, Zhongxiao, Brady, Esther, Noone, David, Zhu, Qingzhao, and Guan, Jian. Modeling precipitation <i>δ</i><sup>18</sup>O variability in East Asia since the Last Glacial Maximum: temperature and amount effects across different timescales. Germany: N. p., 2016. Web. doi:10.5194/cp-12-2077-2016.
Wen, Xinyu, Liu, Zhengyu, Chen, Zhongxiao, Brady, Esther, Noone, David, Zhu, Qingzhao, & Guan, Jian. Modeling precipitation <i>δ</i><sup>18</sup>O variability in East Asia since the Last Glacial Maximum: temperature and amount effects across different timescales. Germany. https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-12-2077-2016
Wen, Xinyu, Liu, Zhengyu, Chen, Zhongxiao, Brady, Esther, Noone, David, Zhu, Qingzhao, and Guan, Jian. Wed . "Modeling precipitation <i>δ</i><sup>18</sup>O variability in East Asia since the Last Glacial Maximum: temperature and amount effects across different timescales". Germany. https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-12-2077-2016.
@article{osti_1332379,
title = {Modeling precipitation <i>δ</i><sup>18</sup>O variability in East Asia since the Last Glacial Maximum: temperature and amount effects across different timescales},
author = {Wen, Xinyu and Liu, Zhengyu and Chen, Zhongxiao and Brady, Esther and Noone, David and Zhu, Qingzhao and Guan, Jian},
abstractNote = {Water isotopes in precipitation have played a key role in the reconstruction of past climate on millennial timescales and longer. However, for midlatitude regions like East Asia with complex terrain, the reliability behind the basic assumptions of the temperature effect and amount effect is based on modern observational data and still remains unclear for past climate. In the present work, we reexamine the two basic effects on seasonal, interannual, and millennial timescales in a set of time slice experiments for the period 22–0 ka using an isotope-enabled atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM). Our study confirms the robustness of the temperature and amount effects on the seasonal cycle over China in the present climatic conditions, with the temperature effect dominating in northern China and the amount effect dominating in the far south of China but no distinct effect in the transition region of central China. However, our analysis shows that neither temperature nor amount effect is significantly dominant over China on millennial and interannual timescales, which is a challenge to those classic assumptions in past climate reconstruction. Our work helps shed light on the interpretation of the proxy record of δ18O from a modeling point of view.},
doi = {10.5194/cp-12-2077-2016},
journal = {Climate of the Past (Online)},
number = 11,
volume = 12,
place = {Germany},
year = {Wed Nov 16 00:00:00 EST 2016},
month = {Wed Nov 16 00:00:00 EST 2016}
}

Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-12-2077-2016

Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 7 works
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