Search

It is well known that Arctic sea ice and Arctic amplification have played an important role in recent climate change in middle to high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. We present a high‐resolution elemental data set, spanning the past 9,000 years, obtained using in‐situ synchrotron radiation X‐ray fluorescence measurements of a lake sediment core from Lake Shuang in the Altai Mountains. Based on calibration against the local instrumental climatic record, the Rb/Sr ratio of the sediments is interpreted as an indicator of weathering intensity, which is related to precipitation and temperature variations. There is very little bromine in the granites and moyites in the catchment of Lake Shuang, and the sedimentary Br is derived primarily from wet deposition originating from precipitation and enriched by biogenic processes in this open lake system. The Br variation is positively correlated with local precipitation. The Rb/Sr and Br time series show distinct decadal‐scale to millennial‐scale cycles that are similar to those of Arctic sea‐ice variations, which implies the important role of Artic sea ice in modulating environmental change at Lake Shuang. Our results support a previous suggestion that sea ice loss would cause an increase in atmospheric water vapor content in the Arctic, resulting in the frequent incursion of cold air masses from the Arctic into middle latitudes, and leading to increased snow cover and precipitation, and vice versa. Plain Language Summary: Cyclical and abrupt paleoclimatic events in the Holocene are often linked with Arctic amplification in which atmospheric changes induced by variations in solar radiation are amplified and transmitted globally via the impact of sea ice on ocean‐atmosphere circulation patterns. However, a few of high‐resolution regional paleoclimatic records from midlatitudes have been used to evaluate and verify this link on longer time scales. Here, we present high‐resolution elemental data from the sediments of a lake in the Altai Mountains. The results show distinct decadal‐scale to millennial‐scale cycles that are similar to those of Arctic sea‐ice variations, which implies the important role of Artic sea ice in modulating environmental change at Lake Shuang. Key Points: High‐resolution elemental record from an alpine lake in the Altai MountainsThe result indicates distinct decadal‐to‐centennial cycles over the past 9.0 kaThe cycles link with Arctic sea‐ice variations [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Altai Mountains are located at the junction of Asia and Europe and pathways linking East Asian climate with the Arctic and North Atlantic. Here, we report a record of n -alkanes from the sediments of Shuanghu Lake in the Altai Mountains. In this forested region, the vegetation is dominated by C 3 plants and the long-chain n -alkanes (C29–C31) in the lake sediments are predominantly derived from leaf wax lipids. The compound-specific carbon isotopic values of the long-chain n-alkanes are sensitive to regional moisture. Both the δ13C 29–31 value and the Paq index show a decreasing trend since ∼9.0 kyr BP, implying an increase in moisture. This trend is punctuated by abrupt decreases in isotopic values centered at 8.2, 7.4, 5.6, 3.0, 2.0 and 0.2 kyr BP, which may indicate cold and wet events on decadal–centennial timescales. The Holocene hydrological patterns recorded at Shuanghu Lake are different from those from monsoonal Asia and they may reflect a response to decreasing Arctic sea ice cover that provided an enhanced moisture source and promoted increased heavy snowfall in the study region, or an increase in the temperature gradient and strength of the jet stream and extratropical cyclones at mid-latitudes, as proposed previously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]