Abstract:

In recent years, "Holocene temperature conundrum" has received extensive attention from paleoclimatologists. In order to solve this conundrum, more Holocene temperature reconstruction needs to be carried out in different regions of the world. The Pamir region of Xinjiang, China, is located in the core area of inland Asia and many scholars have conducted in-depth studies on the Holocene climate change in this region. However, these studies are mainly focused on precipitation (or humidity) rather than temperature. In this study, the correlation between topsoil carbon isotopes and climatic factors (temperature and precipitation) was first established, and the results showed that δ¹³C_org in Pamir was highly positively correlated with temperature. Supported by the AMS ¹⁴C dating data of seven samples and 175 peat δ¹³C_α-cellulose data, the temperature variation in Pamir during the past ~5000 year was reconstructed. Generally, Pamir has shown a warming climate during late Holocene and the change can be further divided into two sub-stages: a fluctuating cool period from ~5000 cal a BP to ~3600 cal a BP and a fluctuating warming period since ~3600 cal a BP. The driving mechanism analysis shows that the temperature decrease before ~3600 cal a BP was mainly controlled by the decrease of summer solar radiation and the temperature increase since ~3600 cal a BP was mainly controlled by the enhanced radiative forcing of greenhouse gases and human activity.

Key words: late Holocene, temperature change, peat, δ¹³C_α-cellulose, Pamir