Climate Variations near Beijing Over the Last 1130 Years: Evidence from Annual Layers in a Stalagmite from Shihua Cave, China

摘要

Speleothems have received attention as paleoclimate proxies for several decades. The utilization of stalagmites as high resolution (annual to interannual) paleoclimatic indicators is advancing with the recognition of annual growth banding in stalagmites. In this paper the aulhors report a preliminary study of aHolocene stalagmite from Southwest of Beijing. The results indicate that the thicknesses of annual growth layers, which are defined by annual deposition hiatuses, preserve a record of changes in the amount of precipitation. A comparison of layer-thicknesses with an index of drought and flood recovered from the historical documents of the last 523 years, and the instrumental record of precipitation supports this interpretation.