500-year growth cycle of stalagmite and its response to regional hydrological changes in Heshang cave, western Hubei

Abstract

Stalagmitesare important high-resolution paleoclimate archives, and possess abundant physical, chemical and microbial paleoclimate proxies. Among of them, the growth rate (GR)of stalagmites quite popular because its easy access and non-destruction.However, the environmental implicationsof GR are still ambiguous due to the complex influence factors. Here we established the GR series span past 8.8 ka of HS4 stalagmite came from the Heshang Cave located in the middle reaches of Yangtze River. It was found that the GR of HS4 stalagmite showed two stages in the millennial timescale: the low and stable GR duration between 8.8 and 5.0 ka BP and the high and fluctuated GR duration since 5.0 ka BP. Above millennial variation is negative correlated with the intensity of regional summer monsoon and positive correlated with the frequency of El Nino and regional paleo-hydrological condition. The GR of HS4 stalagmite exhibited a significant 500-year cycle with confidence level more than 99%. The centennial periodic GR variation coincide well with the occurrence of regional heavy precipitation with the higher frequency of heavy precipitation correspond to the faster GR, and this correlation is especially significant in the Late Holocene. but which was forcing by considering the regional precipitation in millennial and centennial time scale were mainly affected direct or indirectly by the solar radiation and El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) activity, we conclude that the GR of HS4 stalagmite is mainly controlled by the regional effective precipitation forcing by the solar radiation and ENSO activity, showing the greater the rainfall the faster the growth rate.

Keywords

• stalagmite
• growth rate
• enso
• middle reaches of the yangtze river
• spectrum analysis