Ecological and hydrologic evolution history in the sensitive zone of both East Asian summer monsoon and Westerly since the Last Glacial Maximum.

The Qilian Mountains, located in the northeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, is a sensitive zone of both East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) and westerly winds (WW). The evolution history and driving mechanism of the ecosystem and hydrologic cycle in this region on long-term timescales have not yet been clarified. In this study, we comprehensively study the hydrologic and ecological evolution history in the sensitive zone since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) by integrating surface sediments, paleoclimate records, TraCE-21ka transient simulations, and PMIP3-CMIP5 multi-model simulation. Results show that hydrologic and ecological proxies from surface sediments are significantly different from west to east and mainly divided into three sections: the monsoon-affected region in the eastern Qilian Mountains, the intersection region in the central Qilian Mountains, and the westerly-affected region in the western Qilian Mountains. Meanwhile, paleo-ecological and paleohydrologic reconstructions from the surroundings uncover a synchronous climate evolution that the EASM mainly controls the eastern Qilian Mountains and penetrates the central Qilian Mountains in monsoon intensity maximum, while the WW dominates the central and western Qilian Mountains on both glacial-interglacial and millennial timescales. The simulation results further bear out the glacial humid climate in the central and western Qilian Mountains caused by the enhanced WW, and the humidity maximum in the eastern Qilian Mountains controlled by the strong mid-Holocene monsoon. In general, east-west differences in climate pattern and response for the EASM and the WW are integrally stable on both short-term and long-term timescales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]