Temperature Reconstruction in the Southern Margin of Taklimakan Desert from Tamarix Cones Using GWO-SVM Model

Abstract

The sedimentary laminae of Tamarix cones in arid regions are of great significance for dating and climatic reconstruction. Here, we present a multiproxy climatic record from the Tamarix cones in the southern margin of the Taklimakan Desert. Both the bivariate analysis and canonical correlation analysis were carried out for four groups of climate proxies in Tamarix cones, including organic matter content, grain size, cation content, and stable isotope content (δ13C, and δ18O). The temperature during the period from 1790 to 2010 AD has been reconstructed using the support vector machine optimized by the grey wolf optimizer, in which the climate proxies (TN, TOC, C/N, Mg2+, Ca2+, δ13C, and δ18O) were selected using the neighborhood rough set. The reconstructed values are in good agreement with the instrumental data. The regional temperature has distinct stages during the period from 1790 to 2010 AD, with cold conditions during 1790–1840 AD and 1896–1939 AD, and with warm conditions during 1841–1895 AD and 1940–2010 AD. The present work is beneficial to predict the future climate in the local area and encourage local governments to develop more effective measures to address the risks of climate change to environmental sustainability.