Monsoon versus uplift in southwestern China--Late Pliocene climate in Yuanmou Basin, Yunnan.
Yuanmou Basin of Yunnan, SW China, is a famous locality with hominids, hominoids, mammals and plant fossils. Based on the published megaflora and palynoflora data from Yuanmou Basin, the climate of Late Pliocene is reconstructed using the Coexistence Approach. The results indicate a warm and humid subtropical climate with a mean annual temperature of ca. 16-17°C and a mean annual precipitation of ca. 1500-1600 mm in the Late Pliocene rather than a dry, hot climate today, which may be due to the local tectonic change and gradual intensification of India monsoon. The comparison of Late Pliocene climate in Eryuan, Yangyi, Longling, and Yuanmou Basin of Yunnan Province suggests that the mean annual temperatures generally show a latitudinal gradient and fit well with their geographic position, while the mean annual precipitations seem to be related to the different geometries of the valleys under the same monsoon system.
State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
Yi-Feng
YF
Yao
Angela A
AA
Bruch
Ye-Ming
YM
Cheng
Volker
V
Mosbrugger
Yu-Fei
YF
Wang
Cheng-Sen
CS
Li
D002681:China; D002980:Climate; D005843:Geography; D011891:Rain; D013696:Temperature