Climate variations of Central Asia on orbital to millennial timescales
AbstractThe extent to which climate variability in Central Asia is causally linked to large-scale changes in the Asian monsoon on varying timescales remains a longstanding question. Here we present precisely dated high-resolution speleothem oxygen-carbon isotope and trace element records of Central Asia’s hydroclimate variability from Tonnel’naya cave, Uzbekistan and Kesang cave, western China. On orbital timescales, the supra-regional climate variance, inferred from our oxygen isotope records, exhibits a precessional rhythm, punctuated by millennial-scale abrupt climate events, suggesting a close coupling with the Asian monsoon. However, the local hydroclimatic variability at both cave sit…
Soil Fungal Community in Grazed Inner Mongolian Grassland Adjacent to Coal-Mining Activity.
Coal mining results in reduced soil quality and makes environments less stable. Soil fungi are suitable indicators of soil quality for monitoring purposes. Here, the objective was therefore to investigate the effects of grazing and mining on the composition of the soil fungal community at the periphery of an opencast coal-mine dump in the Shengli mining area, Xilingol League, Inner Mongolia. A total of 2110 fungal operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were identified and subdivided into 81 orders and nine categories, based on trophic modes. The sensitivity of soil factors to coal-mining and grazing was differently. The sensitive factor to mining was soil pH, and that to grazing were soil nitra…