A Chinese cave links climate change, social impacts, and human adaptation over the last 500 years.
The collapse of some pre-historical and historical cultures, including Chinese dynasties were presumably linked to widespread droughts, on the basis of synchronicities of societal crises and proxy-based climate events. Here, we present a comparison of ancient inscriptions in Dayu Cave from Qinling Mountains, central China, which described accurate times and detailed impacts of seven drought events during the period of 1520-1920 CE, with high-resolution speleothem records from the same cave. The comparable results provide unique and robust tests on relationships among speleothem δ(18)O changes, drought events, and societal unrest. With direct historical evidences, our results suggest that droughts and even modest events interrupting otherwise wet intervals can cause serious social crises. Modeling results of speleothem δ(18)O series suggest that future precipitation in central China may be below the average of the past 500 years. As Qinling Mountain is the main recharge area of two large water transfer projects and habitats of many endangered species, it is imperative to explore an adaptive strategy for the decline in precipitation and/or drought events.
1] State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an 710061, China [2] Joint Center for Global Change Studies (JCGCS), Beijing 100875, China.
Liangcheng
L
Tan
1] State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an 710061, China [2] Institute of Global Environmental Change, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710054, China.
Yanjun
Y
Cai
1] State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an 710061, China [2] Institute of Global Environmental Change, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710054, China.
Zhisheng
Z
An
1] Institute of Global Environmental Change, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710054, China [2] Department of Earth Sciences, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis 55455, USA.
Hai
H
Cheng
Department of Geosciences, National Taiwan University, Taipei 106, Taiwan.
Chuan-Chou
CC
Shen
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3EQ, UK.
Sebastian F M
SF
Breitenbach
Center for Water Research, Department of Geological Sciences, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio 78249, USA.
Yongli
Y
Gao
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis 55455, USA.
R Lawrence
RL
Edwards
Institute of Global Environmental Change, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710054, China.
Haiwei
H
Zhang
State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an 710061, China.
Yajuan
Y
Du
D000064:Acclimatization / Q000502:physiology*; D059552:Caves; D057231:Climate Change; D055864:Droughts; D017753:Ecosystem; D006801:Humans; D012922:Social Change