Abrupt Climate Change around 4 ka BP： Role of the Thermohaline Circulation as Indicated by a GCM Experiment

A great deal of palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic evidence suggests that a predominant tem-perature drop and an aridification occurred at ca. 4.0 ka BP. Palaeoclimate studies in China support thisdedution. The collapse of ancient civilizations at ca. 4.0 ka BP in the Nile Valley and Mesopotamia hasbeen attributed to climate-induced aridification. A widespread alternation of the ancient cultures was alsofound in China at ca. 4.0 ka BP in concert with the collapse of the civilizations in the Old World. Palaeo-climatic studies indicate that the abrupt climate change at 4.0 ka BP is one of the realizations of the coldphase in millennial scale climate oscillations, which may be related to the modulation of the ThermohalineCirculation (THC) over the Atlantic Ocean. Therefore, this study conducts a numerical experiment ofa GCM with SST forcing to simulate the impact of the weakening of the THC. Results show a drop intemperature from North Europe, the northern middle East Asia, and northern East Asia and a significantreduction of precipitation in East Africa, the Middle East, the Indian Peninsula, and the Yellow RiverValley. This seems to support the idea that coldness and aridification at ca. 4.0 ka BP was caused by theweakening of the THC.     

Simulation of paleoclimate over East Asia at 6 ka BP and 21 ka BP by a regional climate model

Using a regional climate model with detailed land surface processes (RegCM2), East Asian monsoon climates at 6 ka BP and 21 ka BP are simulated by prescribing vegetation and employing paleovegetation respectively in order to examine land surface effects on East Asian climate system and the potential mechanisms for climate change. The RegCM2 with a 120 × 120 km² resolution has simulated the enlargement of the seasonal cycle of insolation, the temperature rising the whole year, and the reduction of perpetual snow in high latitudes at 6 ka BP. The simulation shows the East Asian summer monsoon strengthening, precipitation and P–E increasing, and the monsoon rain belt shifting westwards and northwards. Effect of paleovegetation included in the modeling reduced surface albedo and caused an increase in the winter temperature, which led to weakening of the winter continental cold anticyclone over China. The results make the seasonal characteristics of simulated temperature changes in better agreement with the geological records, and are an improvement over previous simulations of Paleoclimate Modeling Intercomparison Project (PMIP). The RegCM2 simulated the 21 ka BP climate with lowered temperature throughout the year, and with precipitation reduced in most areas of East Asia (but increased in both the Tibetan Plateau and Central Asia). Low temperature over East Asia led to the strengthening of the East Asian winter monsoon and the shrinking of the summer monsoon. The effect of paleovegetation included in the experiment has enlarged the glacial climate influence in East Asia, which is closer to geological data than the PMIP simulations directly driven by insolation, glaciation and low CO₂ concentration.     

A Possible Impact of Cooling over the Tibetan Plateau on the Mid-Holocene East Asian Monsoon Climate

By using a 9-level global atmospheric general circulation model developed at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP9L-AGCM) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the authors investigated the response of the East Asian monsoon climate to changes both in orbital forcing and the snow and glaciers over the Tibetan Plateau at the mid-Holocene, about 6000 calendar years before the present (6 kyr BP). With the Earth’s orbital parameters appropriate for the mid-Holocene, the IAP9L-AGCM computed warmer and wetter conditions in boreal summer than for the present day. Under the precondition of continental snow and glacier cover existing over part of the Tibetan Plateau at the mid-Holocene, the authors examined the regional climate response to the Tibetan Plateau cooling. The simulations indicated that climate changes in South Asia and parts of central Asia as well as in East Asia are sensitive to the Tibetan Plateau cooling at the mid-Holocene, showing a significant decrease in precipitation in northern India, northern China and southern Mongolia and an increase in Southeast Asia during boreal summer. The latter seems to correspond to the weakening, southeastward shift of the Asian summer monsoon system resulting from reduced heat contrast between the Eurasian continent and the Pacific and Indian Oceans when a cooling over the Tibetan Plateau was imposed. The simulation results suggest that the snow and glacier environment over the Tibetan Plateau is an important factor for mid-Holocene climate change in the areas highly influenced by the Asian monsoon.     

亚洲夏季风的年际和年代际变化及其未来预测

本文是对我们近五年在亚洲夏季风年代际与年际变率及其未来预测方面研究的一个综述.主要包括下列三个问题:(1)根据123年中国夏季降水资料和印度学者的分析,检测出亚洲夏季风具有明显的年代际尺度减弱,这种年代际变化使中国东部(包括东亚)和南亚夏季降水的格局在过去60年中发生了明显变化.在东亚,从1970年代后期开始,主要异常雨带有不断南移的趋势,结果造成了南涝北旱的降水分布,这主要受到60～80年年代际振荡的影响.青藏高原前冬和春季积雪的年代际减少与热带中东太平洋海表温度的年代际增加是东亚降水型改变的主要原因,这是通过减弱亚洲地区夏季海陆温差与夏季风强度而实现的.未来亚洲夏季风的预测表明,东亚夏季风和南亚夏季风对气候变暖有十分不同的响应.东亚夏季风在本世纪将增强,雨带北推,尤其在2040年代之后;而南亚夏季风环流将继续减弱.这种不同的变化是由于两者对高低层海陆热力差异的不同响应造成.(2)年际尺度的变率在亚洲夏季风区主要表现为2年与4～7年的振荡.本文着重分析了2年振荡(TBO)形成的过程、机理及其对东亚降水的影响.对TBO-海洋机理进行了具体的改进,说明了东亚夏季风降水深受TBO影响的原因,尤其是阐明了长江型(YRV) TBO和淮河型(HRV) TBO的特征及其形成的循环过程.(3)在总结亚洲夏季风时期遥相关型的基础上,本文提出了季节内和年际尺度的低空遥相关型:即西北太平洋季风的遥相关型与印度“南支”和“北支”遥相关型.它们基本上反映了沿低空夏季风强风速带Rossby波群速度传播的结果.据此可以根据西北太平洋和印度夏季风的变化分别预测中国梅雨和华北雨季来临和降水异常.最后研究还表明,在本世纪亚洲夏季风可能更显著地受到人类活动造成的全球变暖的影响,未来的亚洲夏季风活动是人类排放的CO2引起的全球变暖与自然变化(海洋和陆面过程(积雪))共同作用的结果.     

Assessing the sensitivity of the North Atlantic Ocean circulation to freshwater perturbation in various glacial climate states

A striking characteristic of glacial climate in the North Atlantic region is the recurrence of abrupt shifts between cold stadials and mild interstadials. These shifts have been associated with abrupt changes in Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) mode, possibly in response to glacial meltwater perturbations. However, it is poorly understood why they were more clearly expressed during Marine Isotope Stage 3 (MIS3, ~60?C27?ka BP) than during Termination 1 (T1, ~18?C10?ka BP) and especially around the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, ~23?C19?ka BP). One clue may reside in varying climate forcings, making MIS3 and T1 generally milder than LGM. To investigate this idea, we evaluate in a climate model how ice sheet size, atmospheric greenhouse gas concentration and orbital insolation changes between 56?ka BP (=56k), 21k and 12.5k affect the glacial AMOC response to additional freshwater forcing. We have performed three ensemble simulations with the earth system model LOVECLIM using those forcings. We find that the AMOC mode in the mild glacial climate type (56k and 12.5k), with deep convection in the Labrador Sea and the Nordic Seas, is more sensitive to a constant 0.15?Sv freshwater forcing than in the cold type (21k), with deep convection mainly south of Greenland and Iceland. The initial AMOC weakening in response to freshwater forcing is larger in the mild type due to an early shutdown of Labrador Sea deep convection, which is completely absent in the 21k simulation. This causes a larger fraction of the freshwater anomaly to remain at surface in the mild type compared to the cold type. After 200?years, a weak AMOC is established in both climate types, as further freshening is compensated by an anomalous salt advection from the (sub-)tropical North Atlantic. However, the slightly fresher sea surface in the mild type facilitates further weakening of the AMOC, which occurs when a surface buoyancy threshold (?0.6?kg?m^?3 surface density anomaly to the 56k reference state) is stochastically crossed in the Nordic Seas. While described details are model-specific, our results imply that a more northern location of deep convection sites during milder glacial times may have amplified frequency and amplitude of abrupt climate shifts.     

Multiple factors causing Holocene lake-level change in monsoonal and arid central Asia as identified by model experiments

Lake-level records provide a rich resource of information about past changes in effective moisture, but water-balance fluctuations can be driven by a number of different climate variables and it is often difficult to pinpoint their exact cause. This understanding is essential, however, for reconciling divergent paleo-records or for making predictions about future lake-level variations. This research uses a series of models, the NCAR CCSM3, a lake energy-balance and a lake water-balance model, to examine the reasons for lake-level changes in monsoonal Asia and arid central Asia between the early (8.5 ka), middle (6.0 ka) and late (ca. 1800 AD) Holocene. Our results indicate that the components of the lake water balance responsible for lake-level changes varied by region and through time. High lake levels at 8.5 and 6.0 ka in the monsoon region were caused by the combined effects of low lake evaporation and high precipitation. The low lake evaporation resulted from low winter solar radiation and high summer cloud cover. Precipitation associated with the mid-latitude westerlies increased from the early to middle Holocene and maintained high lake levels throughout most of arid central Asia ca. 6 ka. The modeled evolution of lake level in arid central Asia from the mid to late Holocene was spatially heterogeneous, due to different sensitivities of the northern and southern parts of the region to seasonally-changing insolation, particularly regarding the duration of lake ice cover. The model results do not suggest that precipitation and lake evaporation changes compete with one another in forcing lake-level change, as has been hypothesized.     

An East Asian Monsoon in the Mid-Pliocene

In this study, the authors simulate the East Asian climate changes in the mid-Pliocene (～3.3 to 3.0 Ma BP) with the Community Atmosphere Model version 3.1 (CAM3.1) and compare the simulated East Asian monsoon with paleoclimate data. The simulations show an obvious warming pattern in East Asia in the mid-Pliocene compared with the pre-industrial climate, with surface air temperature increasing by 0.5 4.0°C. In the warm mid-Pliocene simulation, the East Asian Summer Monsoon (EASM) becomes stronger, while the East Asian Winter Monsoon (EAWM) is similar relative to the pre-industrial climate. Compared with the paleoclimate data, our simulations depict the intensified EASM well but cannot reproduce the weakened EAWM. This model-data discrepancy may be attributed to the uncertainty in the reconstructed mid-Pliocene sea surface temperature.     

Model Projections of East Asian Summer Climate under the ‘Free Arctic’ Scenario

This paper addresses the ‘ice-free Arctic’ issue under the future global warming scenario. Four coupled climate models used in the third phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP3) were selected to project summer climate conditions over East Asia once the Arctic becomes ice-free. The models project that an ice-free Arctic summer will begin in the 2060s under the SRESA1B (according to IPCC Special Reports on Emissions Scenarios) simulations. Our results show that the East Asian summer monsoons will tend to be stronger and that the water vapor transport to central northern China will be strengthened, leading to increased summer precipitation in central northern China. The models also project an intensified Antarctic Oscillation, a condition which favors increased precipitation in South China’s Yangtze River Valley. The overall precipitation in Northwest China is projected to increase under ice-free Arctic summer conditions.     

AN AGCM +SSiB MODEL SIMULATION ON CHANGES IN PALAEOMONSOON CLIMATE AT 21 KA BP IN CHINA*

The numerical simulation experiment of climate at Last Glacial Maximum (LGM.21 ka BP) in China is made by using an atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM) coupled with land surface processes (AGCM+SSiB) and earth orbital parameters and boundary forcing conditions at21 ka.The modeled climate features are compared with reconstructed conditions at 21 ka from paleo-lake data and pollen data.The results show that the simulated climate conditions at 21 ka in China are fairly comparable with paleo-climatological data.The climate features at 21 ka in China from the experiment are characterized by a drier in the east and a wetter in the west and in the Tibetan Plateau as well.According to the analysis of distribution of pressure and precipitation,as well as the intensity of atmospheric circulation at 21 ka,monsoon circulation in eastern Asia was significantly weak comparing with the present.In the Tibetan Plateau,the intensity of summer monsoon circulation was strengthened,and winter monsoon was a little stronger than the present.The simulation with given forcing boundary conditions,especially the different vegetation coverage,can reproduce the climate condition at the LGM in China,and therefore provides dynamical mechanisms on the climate changes at 21 ka.     

AN AGCM SSiB MODEL SIMULATION ON CHANGES IN PALAEOMONSOON CLIMATE AT 21 KA BP IN CHINA

The numerical simulation experiment of climate at Last Glacial Maximum (LGM.21 ka BP)in China is made by using an atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM) coupled with landsurface processes (AGCM SSiB) and earth orbital parameters and boundary forcing conditions at21 ka.The modeled climate features are compared with reconstructed conditions at 21 ka frompaleo-lake data and pollen data.The results show that the simulated climate conditions at 21 ka inChina are fairly comparable with paleo-climatological data.The climate features at 21 ka in Chinafrom the experiment are characterized by a drier in the east and a wetter in the west and in theTibetan Plateau as well.According to the analysis of distribution of pressure and precipitation,aswell as the intensity of atmospheric circulation at 21 ka,monsoon circulation in eastern Asia wassignificantly weak comparing with the present.In the Tibetan Plateau,the intensity of summermonsoon circulation was strengthened,and winter monsoon was a little stronger than the present.The simulation with given forcing boundary conditions,especially the different vegetationcoverage,can reproduce the climate condition at the LGM in China,and therefore providesdynamical mechanisms on the climate changes at 21 ka.     

1990年代初夏季东北亚低压的年代际转变

夏季东亚地区对流层低层受到一个陆地低压系统控制;该低压中心位于东亚的北部地区,文中称之为东北亚低压。基于NCEP/DOE、NCEP/NCAR、ERA-40和ERA-Interim四种不同的再分析数据,本文分析了夏季东北亚低压的年代际变化特征,并进一步探讨了其转变的可能物理机理。研究结果表明夏季东北亚低压在1990年代初期存在一次显著的年代际转变, 之后低压强度减弱。对应此次年代际转变,东北亚地区对流层位势高度呈现为正压结构的正异常,其南侧的高空西风急流中心强度减弱。进一步,基于观测和简单线性斜压模式模拟结果,我们提出环贝加尔湖地区夏季气温增加可能是导致1990年代初期之后夏季东北亚低压减弱的原因。     

江南春雨和南海副热带高压的时间演变及其与东亚夏季风环流和降水的关系

使用国家气象信息中心整理的逐日降水资料和NCEP/NCAR逐日再分析资料,创建了江南春雨建立时间指数和南海副热带高压（副高）减弱时间指数,研究了江南春雨各要素的相互关系及其与东亚夏季风环流和降水的关系。分析表明,当江南春雨建立较晚时,夏季江南地区的降水也较少,这是由于东亚夏季风加强,高原近侧气旋性环流加强,使江南地区出现异常反气旋性环流（气旋性辐合环流减弱）所致;当南海副高减弱较晚时,长江中下游至江南地区降水偏多,易发洪涝,这主要是由于东亚夏季风减弱,南海副高偏强,华南的异常西南风与围绕高原的异常反气旋环流的偏北风在长江中下游流域形成异常气旋性环流所致。江南春雨的建立时间和南海副高减弱时间之间又具有线性无关性,可以为东亚夏季风环流和降水异常的预报提供重要线索。两指数与3月ENSO综合指数MEI关系密切,表明东亚的气候异常与ENSO 全球气候异常紧密联系,因此在分析预测东亚气候异常时必须同时关注全球气候异常背景。     

CAUSATION ANALYSIS OF THE DIRECT CLIMATE EFFECTS OF ANTHROPOGENIC AEROSOL ON EAST-ASIAN SUMMER MONSOON

A regional climate model coupled with an aerosol model is employed to numerically simulate the direct climate effects of the anthropogenic aerosol emitted in South Asia and China in the East Asian summer monsoon during 1988 to 2009. Based on the data of the numerical simulation, composite analysis and correlation analysis are used to make diagnostic study of climate dynamics. Results show that the month of maximum emission of the mean column burden of the anthropogenic aerosol in the main emission areas of South Asia is opposite in phase to that in China. Summer is the season of maximum emission amount in China, but the emission amounts are more in South Asia in spring and winter. On the whole, the mean column burden of the anthropogenic aerosol in China is relatively high compared with that in South Asia. The trend of distribution of aerosol is SW-NE in China, and Sichuan Basin is the emission center of aerosol. The effect of negative short wave radiative forcing alters the gradient of pressure between land and sea, weakening the development of East Asian summer monsoon over the northern part of Yangtze-Huaihe River Basin. We also discuss the feedback effect of East-Asian summer monsoon which is changed by the anthropogenic aerosol on the concentration and distribution of aerosol in China.     

Ecosystem Responses to Abrupt Climate Change: Teleconnections, Scale and the Hydrological Cycle

The occurrence of past and future abrupt climate change, such as could occur under thermohaline circulation (THC) weakening, is increasingly evident in the paleoclimate record and model experiments. We examine potential responses of ecosystem structure and function to abrupt climate change using temperature and precipitation patterns generated by HadCM3 in response to forced THC weakening. The large changes in potential ecosystem structure and function that occur are not focused in the North Atlantic region where temperature sensitivity to THC is highest but occur throughout the world in response to climate system teleconnections. Thus, THC weakening, which is often viewed as a European problem, has globally distributed ecosystem implications. Although temperature changes associated with THC weakening affect the extent of several high latitude biomes, the distribution of ecosystem change results primarily from changes in the hydrological cycle. Currently there remains large uncertainty in climate model projections of the hydrological cycle. Therefore, the predictions of the magnitude andlocation of ecosystem perturbations will also be characterized by large uncertainty, making impact assessment, and thus adaptation, more difficult. Finally, these results illustrate the importance of scale and disaggregation in assessing ecosystem responses. Small globally aggregated ecosystem responses to THC weakening, approximately five percent for NPP and biomass, mask large local and regional changes.     

Paleoclimate modeling in China: A review

This paper provides a review of paleoclimate modeling activities in China. Rather than attempt to cover all topics, we have chosen a few climatic intervals and events judged to be particularly informative to the international community. In historical climate simulations, changes in solar radiation and volcanic activity explain most parts of reconstructions over the last millennium prior to the industrial era, while atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations play the most important role in the20 th century warming over China. There is a considerable model–data mismatch in the annual and boreal winter temperature change over China during the mid-Holocene [6000 years before present(ka BP)], while coupled models with an interactive ocean generally perform better than atmospheric models. For the Last Glacial Maximum(21 ka BP), climate models successfully reproduce the surface cooling trend over China but fail to reproduce its magnitude, with a better performance for coupled models. At that time, reconstructed vegetation and western Pacific sea surface temperatures could have significantly affected the East Asian climate, and environmental conditions on the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau were most likely very different to the present day. During the late Marine Isotope Stage 3(30–40 ka BP), orbital forcing and Northern Hemisphere glaciation, as well as vegetation change in China, were likely responsible for East Asian climate change. On the tectonic scale,the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau uplift, the Tethys Sea retreat, and the South China Sea expansion played important roles in the formation of the East Asian monsoon-dominant environment pattern during the late Cenozoic.     

IPCC AR4模式中夏季西太平洋副高南北位置特征的模拟

利用IPCCAR4中8个气候系统模式的环流、对流和降水资料,结合实际的观测及再分析资料,从年际尺度上比较分析了这些气候系统模式对夏季西太平洋副热带高压南北位置、暖池对流和江淮降水关系的模拟能力,结果表明在西太平洋副热带高压随纬度分布的模拟中,经向分辨率高的模式存在一定的优势。在夏季西太平洋副热带高压的南北位置、暖池对流和江淮降水关系的模拟上,GFDL-CM2.1能合理地表征三者之间的关系;在影响东亚夏季风年际变化的东亚太平洋遥相关型的模拟上,GFDL-CM2.1和ECHAM5_MPI/OM能够较好地模拟出其特征,其中前者模拟结果要明显好于后者。同时利用GFDL-CM2.1在SRES A1B情景下的试验结果,EAP(East Asia/Pacific)指数与中国东部降水的变化关系得出,随着大气中二氧化碳浓度增加,在21世纪前期,江淮偏旱的概率较高;21世纪后期,江淮降水可能偏多。     

全球变化科学领域的若干研究进展

介绍了中国科学院大气物理研究所东亚中心在全球变化科学研究方面的一些进展.主要包括:(1)参与了国际和国内全球变化科学的开拓工作;(2)提出了区域水平上的全球变化研究新方向;(3)气候突变和全球增暖的区域响应研究;(4)东亚季风区植被-大气相互作用研究;(5)区域环境系统模式的发展和亚洲区域模式的国际比较研究活动;(6)提出了对全球变化的人类有序适应的概念、试验观测、理论和方法;(7)面向国家需求的全球变化问题北方干旱化研究;(8)陆地生态系统碳循环研究等.     

Factors favorable to frequent extreme precipitation in the upper Yangtze River Valley

Extreme precipitation events in the upper Yangtze River Valley (YRV) have recently become an increasingly important focus in China because they often cause droughts and floods. Unfortunately, little is known about the climate processes responsible for these events. This paper investigates factors favorable to frequent extreme precipitation events in the upper YRV. Our results reveal that a weakened South China Sea summer monsoon trough, intensified Eurasian-Pacific blocking highs, an intensified South Asian High, a southward subtropical westerly jet and an intensified Western North Pacific Subtropical High (WNPSH) increase atmospheric instability and enhance the convergence of moisture over the upper YRV, which result in more extreme precipitation events. The snow depth over the eastern Tibetan Plateau (TP) in winter and sea surface temperature anomalies (SSTAs) over three key regions in summer are important external forcing factors in the atmospheric circulation anomalies. Deep snow on the Tibetan Plateau in winter can weaken the subsequent East Asian summer monsoon circulation above by increasing the soil moisture content in summer and weakening the land–sea thermal contrast over East Asia. The positive SSTA in the western North Pacific may affect southwestward extension of the WNPSH and the blocking high over northeastern Asia by arousing the East Asian-Pacific pattern. The positive SSTA in the North Atlantic can affect extreme precipitation event frequency in the upper YRV via a wave train pattern along the westerly jet between the North Atlantic and East Asia. A tripolar pattern from west to east over the Indian Ocean can strengthen moisture transport by enhancing Somali cross-equatorial flow.     

Response of the Western European climate to a collapse of the thermohaline circulation

Two ensemble simulations with the ECHAM5/MPI-OM climate model have been investigated for the atmospheric response to a thermohaline circulation (THC) collapse. The model forcing was specified from observations between 1950 and 2000 and it followed a rising greenhouse gases emission scenario from 2001 to 2100. In one ensemble, a THC collapse was induced by adding freshwater in the northern North Atlantic, from 2001 onwards. After about 20 years, an almost stationary response pattern develops, that is, after the THC collapse, global mean temperature rises equally fast in both ensembles with the hosing ensemble displaying a constant offset. The atmospheric response to the freshwater hosing features a strong zonal gradient in the anomalous 2-m air temperature over Western Europe, associated with a strong land–sea contrast. Since Western Europe climate features a strong marine impact due to the prevailing westerlies, the question arises how such a strong land–sea contrast can be maintained. We show that a strong secondary cloud response is set up with increased cloud cover over sea and decreased cloud cover over land. Also, the marine impact on Western European climate decreases, which results from a reduced transport of moist static energy from sea to land. As a result, the change in lapse rate over the cold sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies west of the continent is much larger than over land, dominated by changes in moisture content rather than temperature.     

Causes of mid-Pliocene strengthened summer and weakened winter monsoons over East Asia

The mid-Pliocene warm period was the most recent geological period in Earth's history that featured long-term warming.Both geological evidence and model results indicate that East Asian summer winds(EASWs) strengthened in monsoonal China, and that East Asian winter winds(EAWWs) weakened in northern monsoonal China during this period, as compared to the pre-industrial period. However, the corresponding mechanisms are still unclear. In this paper, the results of a set of numerical simulations are reported to analyze the effects of changed boundary conditions on the mid-Pliocene East Asian monsoon climate, based on PRISM3(Pliocene Research Interpretation and Synoptic Mapping) palaeoenvironmental reconstruction. The model results showed that the combined changes of sea surface temperatures, atmospheric CO2 concentration,and ice sheet extent were necessary to generate an overall warm climate on a large scale, and that these factors exerted the greatest effects on the strengthening of EASWs in monsoonal China. The orographic change produced significant local warming and had the greatest effect on the weakening of EAWWs in northern monsoonal China in the mid-Pliocene. Thus,these two factors both had important but different effects on the monsoon change. In comparison, the effects of vegetational change on the strengthened EASWs and weakened EAWWs were relatively weak. The changed monsoon winds can be explained by a reorganization of the meridional temperature gradient and zonal thermal contrast. Moreover, the effect of orbital parameters cannot be ignored. Results showed that changes in orbital parameters could have markedly affected the EASWs and EAWWs, and caused significant short-term oscillations in the mid-Pliocene monsoon climate in East Asia.