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Studies of the vegetation response to abrupt climatic events may provide valuable insights into assessing the impacts of such events under future global warming scenarios. Here we present a detailed record of regional vegetation change based on high‐resolution pollen records for the intervals 9000–7000 and 5000–3000 cal a bp from the Hulun Lake region of north‐eastern China. Our aims were to determine the regional expression of the 8.2‐ and 4.2‐ka events in north‐eastern China, especially their effects on vegetation composition. The results show that the response of the vegetation of the Hulun Lake region to the climatic cooling of the 8.2‐ka event was relatively minor; however, the 4.2‐ka event, which resulted in climatic aridification, resulted in pronounced vegetation degradation. We suggest that the specific characteristics of the 8.2‐ and 4.2‐ka events, together with their duration and the regional climatic background on an orbital time scale, were the main factors responsible for the contrasting vegetation responses. The strengthening and northward shift of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) tended to offset the cooling effect of the 8.2‐ka event on regional vegetation in the mid–high latitudes of East Asia; in contrast, the decrease in summer insolation in the Northern Hemisphere and the southward shift of the ITCZ may have intensified the drought effect of the 4.2‐ka event in East Asia and the associated vegetation degradation. Under future global warming scenarios, both extreme cooling events and extreme drought events may cause a deterioration of the ecological environment; however, the resulting regional vegetation responses may be substantially different. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydrological variations in individual plateau lakes respond from both local hydrological processes and regional climatic changes. This study presents high resolution, absolutely-dated records of minerals in bulk samples and elements and stable isotopes of endogenic calcites from a sediment core from Dali Lake in Inner Mongolian Plateau, aiming to investigate the patterns and mechanisms of Holocene hydrological and climatic changes in the modern northern margin of the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM). Increases in the percentages of allogenic minerals (quartz, microcline and albite) and decreases in the percentages of endogenic/authigenic minerals (calcite, Mg-calcite and gypsum), together with decreases in the values of Ca and Mg concentrations and δ18O and δ13C of endogenic calcites indicate an excess of water input to the lake over evaporative losses, and vice versa. These data suggest that the hydrological balance of Dali Lake was controlled by strong evaporation before 9800 cal yr BP, and then the lake was supplied by significantly increased inflowing water between 9800 and 5900 cal yr BP. From 5900 to 4850 cal yr BP, the water input to the lake significantly decreased. Since 4850 cal yr BP, the inflowing water maintained a low level. In addition, the distinct characteristics of mineralogy and carbonate geochemistry of the Dali Lake sediments during the periods of high lake level between 9800–7700 and 7700–5900 cal yr BP imply that the lake was mainly fed by snow/ice melt water in the former period and then by regional precipitation in the latter period, which was further supported by the pollen records from the same sediment core. These results suggest that Holocene hydrological variations in the EASM margin were closely related to changes in regional temperature and precipitation which were ultimately controlled by changes in the Northern Hemisphere summer insolation, northern high latitude ice sheets, global sea level and physicochemical conditions of the North Atlantic and western tropical Pacific on orbital and millennial timescales. The datasets in this study support that the maximum EASM intensity occurred during the middle Holocene in the northern EASM regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The response of vegetation to extreme cold events during the last deglaciation is important for assessing the impact of possible extreme climatic events on terrestrial ecosystems under future global warming scenarios. Here, we present a detailed record of the development of regional vegetation in the northern margin of Asian summer monsoon during the last deglaciation (16,500–11,000 cal yr BP) based on a radiocarbon-dated high-resolution pollen record from Hulun Lake, northeast China. The results show that the regional vegetation changed from subalpine meadow-desert steppe to mixed coniferous and deciduous forest-typical steppe during the last deglaciation. However, its responses to the Heinrich event 1 (H1) and the Younger Dryas event (YD) were significantly different: during the H1 event, scattered sparse forest was present in the surrounding mountains, while within the lake catchment the vegetation cover was poor and was dominated by desert steppe. In contrast, during the YD event, deciduous forest developed and the proportion of coniferous forest increased in the mountains, the lake catchment was occupied by typical steppe. We suggest that changes in Northern Hemisphere summer insolation and land surface conditions (ice sheets and sea level) caused temperature and monsoonal precipitation variations that contributed to the contrasting vegetation response during the two cold events. We conclude that under future global warming scenarios, extreme climatic events may cause a deterioration of the ecological environment of the Hulun Lake region, resulting in increased coniferous forest and decreased total forest cover in the surrounding mountains, and a reduction in typical steppe in the lake catchment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]