Pliocene precipitation variability and environmental impact across mid-latitude Asia 

The study of past warm climates with high atmospheric CO2 concentrations provides important tools for understanding present trends and developing mitigation strategies for future scenarios. The Pliocene is the last long lasting warm interval characterized by similar global climate circulation patterns and continental settings as today. Reconstructing Pliocene climate change from well-dated geological archives provides valuable insights into the climate forcings and pathways modulating the transfer of heat and humidity, and their regional impact, across the Asian continent. To address this challenge we aim to undertake high-resolution multi-proxy analyses on a W-E transect of Asian lacustrine records dating back to the Pliocene. We propose that integration of these datasets across the mid-latitudes, will allow reconstruction of the spatial distribution of precipitation, and enable disentangling different forcing mechanisms. Combined with existing qualitative records, a comprehensive integration and comparative study will be conducted to reveal the regional differences in precipitation, and to discuss its relationship with westerlies, monsoon, and climate changes at high and low latitudes, and improve the understanding of the coupling with ice volume and ocean circulation changes. The current study will also provide an important reference for future climate and environment change scenarios under high atmospheric CO2 concentrations. 

This project is funded by the ISF-NSFC.