Holocene synchronous evolution of precipitation and soil moisture as evidenced by paleosol deposits in the Ili Basin, Central Asia

Assessing the impact of precipitation and temperature on soil moisture changes during the Holocene is essential to understanding the regional ecological environment change in the arid Central Asia core (CAC). However, this assessment is challenging due to the lack of reliable precipitation records. Here, we present Holocene paired precipitation and soil moisture records from the same paleosol deposits with well-constrained optically stimu-lated luminescence chronology in the Ili Basin, CAC. We selected dolomite content and the delta 13C of organic matter to reflect precipitation change, and redness, frequency-dependent magnetic susceptibility, and total organic content to reflect soil moisture changes. The results show that precipitation and soil moisture records exhibit internal consistency, suggesting a synchronous evolution in both during the Holocene. We deduced that pre-cipitation dominated Holocene soil moisture variations in the CAC. The increasing precipitation during the Holocene in the CAC may be attributed to the southward migration of the midlatitude westerlies and increasing penetration of water vapor from the Asian monsoon region.

Automated summary

Assessing the impact of precipitation and temperature on soil moisture changes during the Holocene is important for understanding regional ecological environment change in the arid Central Asia core (CAC). However, the lack of reliable precipitation records makes this assessment challenging. In this study, we present Holocene paired precipitation and soil moisture records from the Ili Basin, CAC, and find that precipitation dominated Holocene soil moisture variations in the region.