East Asia

About: East Asia is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 17591 publications have been published within this topic receiving 274073 citations. The topic is also known as: Eastern Asia.

Early paleolithic of China and eastern Asia

Abstract: In attempting to understand the course of human evolution and the nature of hominid adaptation over the past few million years, it is necessary to consider prevailing evidence from all parts of the world. Eastern Asia provides a range of important questions and challenges with regard to this evolutionary puzzle. Although evidence for earlier ape evolution is present in China (for example, at Lufeng in Yunnan Province), the earliest evidence for hominid presence appears to be in the Early Pleistocene, apparently the result of a migration of hominids to and subsequent adaptation within Eastern Asia. The archeological record provides a closer look at some technological aspects of this adaptation during the Early and Middle Pleistocene, showing both distinctive contrasts and intriguing continuities relative to the rest of the Old World.

High frequency measurements of HFCs at a remote site in east Asia and their implications for Chinese emissions

Abstract: [1] High frequency monitoring of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and some other halocarbons in the atmosphere has been performed at Hateruma Island (lat. 24.1°N, long. 123.8°E), a background site in east Asia. The observed concentrations showed occasional short-term enhancement events over hours to days as well as a clear seasonal variation, being lower in summer than in other seasons. We found that HFC-23 enhancements were closely related to the air transport from China. Using a tagged simulation from three-dimensional transport model and a tracer-ratio technique, the emission rate of HFC-23 from China was estimated to amount to 10 Gg (= 10 000 metric tonnes) per year with an uncertainty of 50%, which could account for two thirds of the total global emission. HFCs emitted from Japan, Korea, and Taiwan were characterized by a predominance of HFC-134a with very little contribution of HFC-23.

Genome-wide data from two early Neolithic East Asian individuals dating to 7700 years ago

Abstract: Ancient genomes have revolutionized our understanding of Holocene prehistory and, particularly, the Neolithic transition in western Eurasia. In contrast, East Asia has so far received little attention, despite representing a core region at which the Neolithic transition took place independently ~3 millennia after its onset in the Near East. We report genome-wide data from two hunter-gatherers from Devil’s Gate, an early Neolithic cave site (dated to ~7.7 thousand years ago) located in East Asia, on the border between Russia and Korea. Both of these individuals are genetically most similar to geographically close modern populations from the Amur Basin, all speaking Tungusic languages, and, in particular, to the Ulchi. The similarity to nearby modern populations and the low levels of additional genetic material in the Ulchi imply a high level of genetic continuity in this region during the Holocene, a pattern that markedly contrasts with that reported for Europe.

Growing threat of intense tropical cyclones to East Asia over the period 1977-2010

Abstract: The threat of intense tropical cyclones (TCs) to East Asia has increased in recent decades. Integrated analyses of five available TC data sets for the period 1977‐2010 revealed that the growing threat of TCs primarily results from the significant shift that the spatial positions of the maximum intensity of TCs moved closer to East Asian coastlines from Vietnam to Japan. This shift incurs a robust increase in landfall intensity over east China, Korea and Japan. In contrast, an increase of TC genesis frequency over the northern part of the South China Sea leads to a reduction in the maximum TC intensity before landfall, because of their short lifetime; thus, there are no clear tendencies in the landfall intensity across Vietnam, south China and Taiwan. All changes are related to the strengthening of the Pacific Walker circulation, closely linked with the recent manifestation that the warming trend of sea surface temperature in the tropical western Pacific is much higher than that in the central to eastern Pacific.