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GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 29, NO. 9, 1324, doi:10.1029/2001GL014485, 2002

General characteristics of temperature variation in China during the last two millennia

Bao Yang

Institute of Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China


Achim Braeuning

Institute for Geography, University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany


Kathleen R. Johnson

Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA


Shi Yafeng

Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, 210008, China


Abstract

Three alternate China-wide temperature composites covering the last 2000 years were established by combining multiple paleoclimate proxy records obtained from ice cores, tree rings, lake sediments and historical documents. Five periods of temperature variation can be identified: a warm stage in AD 0–240, a cold interval between AD 240 and 800, a return to warm conditions from AD 800–1400, including the Medieval Warm Period between AD 800–1100, the cool Little Ice Age period between 1400–1920, and the present warm stage since 1920. Regional temperature variation is found during AD 800–1100, when warm conditions occurred in Eastern China and in the northeastern Tibetan Plateau and in AD 1150–1380, when the southern Tibetan Plateau experienced a warm interval. In contrast, evidence for cool conditions during the LIA is more consistent among the proxy records. The temperature reconstructions for China and the Northern Hemisphere show good agreement over the past millennium.

Published 11 May 2002.

Index Terms: 3344 Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics: Paleoclimatology; 9320 Information Related to Geographic Region: Asia.

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Citation: Yang, B., A. Braeuning, K. R. Johnson, and S. Yafeng (2002), General characteristics of temperature variation in China during the last two millennia, Geophys. Res. Lett., 29(9), 1324, doi:10.1029/2001GL014485.