CLIMATIC CHANGES ON MILLENNIAL TIME SCALES - EVIDENCE FROM A HIGH-RESOLUTION LOESS RECORD

Studies on a high resolution loess section in Huining County reveal th at the behavior of climate shows high instability during the last glac iation. Results reflect that climate in Loess Plateau oscillates on mi llennial time scales during the last glacial period. These on be telec onnected with the records of Dansgaard-Oeschger cycles and Heinrich ev ents in high latitudes. Results also demonstrate that variations in th e intensity of wind regime on the Loess Plateau have a close correlati on with the changes of global ice sheets volume. All these suggest tha t two-level forcings may drive climate changes in central Asia. The fi rst level is the volume changes of ice sheets and the second level wit h short time scares is superimposed upon the first level on a nearly g lobal scale.