A 6000-year record of changes in drought and precipitation in northeasternChina based on a delta C-13 time series from peat cellulose

We report a new peat delta C-13 proxy record for humidity or precipitation based on C3 plants from northeastern China. The record reveals two times of significant climate shift and eight severe drought periods during the past 6000 years, all of which have the nature of widespread global occurrence. The variability of precipitation shows periodicities of around 70, 80, 90, 107, 110, 123, 134, 141, 162, 198, 205, 249, 278, 324, 389, 467, 584, 834 a nd 1060 years. The occurrence and persistent times of drought and periodici ties of precipitation show good correspondence with solar variability. The remarkable correlations between peat delta C-13, peat delta O-18 and atmosp heric Delta C-14 suggest that on timescales of decades to centuries the cha nges in drought and precipitation are likely caused by variations of atmosp heric circulation and atmosphere-ocean interactions in large-scale patterns that seem to be related to solar variability. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B. V. All rights reserved.