Late Cenozoic Climate Change in Asia: Loess, Monsoon and Monsoon-arid Environment Evolution (Developments in Paleoenvironmental Research, 16)

This book is the first of its kind on environmental change research devoted to monsoon-arid environment evolution history and its mechanism involved. Capturing the most prominent features of Asian climate and environmental changes, it gives a comprehensive review of the Asian Monsoon records providing evidence for spatial and temporal climatic and environmental changes across the Asian continent since the Late Cenozoic. The dynamics underlying these changes are explored based on various bio-geological records and in particular based on the evidence of loess, speleothems as well as on mammal fossils. The Asian monsoon-arid climate system which quantifies the controlling mechanisms of climate change and the way it operates in different time scales is described. Attempts to differentiate between natural change and human-induced effects, which will help guide policies and countermeasures designed to support sustainable development on the Chinese Loess Plateau and the arid west.

From the book reviews:

“For those interested in the Asian monsoon region, this will be essential reading, and indeed, it provides an important resource for the palaeoclimate community as a whole. ... this is an invaluable resource for palaeoclimatologists, with more than 90 pages of references. ... the book provides an up-to-date summary of research in China and adjacent regions and demonstrates the significance of changes in that region for the broader earth system.” (Raymond S. Bradley, The Holocene, Vol. 25 (2), 2015)