Vegetation changes and associated climatic changes in the southern Altai Mountains within China during the Holocene

Abstract

The location of the Altai Mountains at the limits of both the Pacific and Atlantic influences implies that this mountain range is an important climatic boundary. Based on pollen data of 188 samples of a 390-cm core from Narenxia Peat in the southern Altai with a chronologic support of 11 accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dates, we reconstructed the Holocene climatic change at Narenxia Peat. The reconstruction revealed five stages of climatic change: a cold and dry latest deglacial (prior to ~11,500 cal. yr BP), a warm and wet early-Holocene (~11,500 to ~7000 cal. yr BP), a considerably cooled and dried middle Holocene (~7000 to ~4000 cal. yr BP), a resumed warm and wet late-Holocene (~4000 to ~1200 cal. yr BP), and a relatively cool and dry latest Holocene (past ~1200 years). The reconstructions of mean annual temperature (MAT) and mean annual precipitation (MAP) from Narenxia Peat well resemble the reconstructions of North Atlantic Oscillations (NAO) and El Niño–Southern Oscillations (ENSO). The resemblance implies that the Holocene millennial-scale changes in MAT and MAP in the Altai might have been causally associated with the variations in NAO and ENSO.