3 - Climate changes during the Holocene in east Asia (China, Korea and Japan)

Summary

CHINA

Figure 3.1 shows the East Asian area.

Contemporary climate

The contemporary climate of west Asia is dominated in winter by the polar continental air mass (PCAM). During this period there is a northerly flow at the lower troposphere layer, which comes from cold and dry air of middle–high latitude. In the summer, the region is dominated by the tropical–sub-tropical oceanic air mass (TOAM) and the tropical continental air mass: a southerly monsoon dominates the lower troposphere layer, bringing oceanic warm and moist air. There are two types of summer monsoon, the southwestern and the southeastern, influencing different areas. Today, the southeastern monsoon dominates most of China and, in purely theoretical terms, it should have been so for the last 130 ka years (An Zhisheng et al., 1991a).

Climate changes during the Upper Pleistocene and Holocene transition period

During the transition from the Pleistocene to the Holocene, the climate in eastern Asia, especially in China, was different from one region to another, according to the climatic belt to which each region belonged. While the most northwestern region belonged to the westerlies belt, the rest of China was influenced by the monsoon regime. Thus, while the first region was cold and humid during the last glacial period and became warmer and drier as the glaciers melted, most other regions, especially the inner ones, were dry and cold during the Ice Age and warm and moist as deglaciation proceeded (Li Jijun, 1990).