Carved in Stone: What Yangtze Rock Fish Tell of China’s Climate (original) (raw)

Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

he long-term variation in precipitation and drought frequency in the past centuries is key to understanding current impacts of climate change. However, high-resolution proxy records are scarce in some of the humid large river basins, such as the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. Near the Three Gorges, close to the boundary between the upper and middle Yangtze, an enormous rock, the White Crane Ridge (WCR), or Baiheliang, lies below the surface of the river. The 1,600-m-long and 15-m-wide ridge was exposed to air only during the middle winter to early spring seasons of drier years. Its emergence from the waters has had special significance in this area of China; early drought in the upper Yangtze was most likely followed by favorable weather and a bumper harvest in the following growing season in the WCR area.