Abstract. High resolution reconstructions based on productivity proxies and magnetic properties measured from sediment core 41-2 (off Kamchatka), reveal prevailing centennial-millennial productivity/climate variability in the northwestern (NW) Pacific from the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) to the Early Holocene (EH). The core age model is established by AMS 14C dating using foraminifer shells from the core and by correlating the productivity cycles and relative paleomagnetic intensity records with those of well-dated nearby core, SO-201-12KL. Our results show a pronounced feature of centennial-millennial productivity/climate cycles of the NW Pacific had occurred synchronicity with the summer East Asian Monsoon (EAM) at sub-interstadial scale during the LGM (3 cycles), Heinrich Event 1(3 cycles), and Bølling/Allerød warming (4 cycles), and over the EH (3 cycles). Our comparison of the centennial-millennial variability to the Antarctic EDML (EPICA Dronning Maud Land) ice core suggests a “push” effect of Southern hemisphere temperature gradients on the summer EAM intensifications. Besides the linkages of NW Pacific high productivity and summer EAM, we observed that five low productivity cycles during EH are nearly synchronous with cooling in Greenland, weakening of the summer EAM, and decreases in solar irradiance. We propose that such centennial-millennial productivity/climate variability in the NW Pacific and sequence of sub-stadial/interstadials in the EAM from the LGM to EH are a persistent regional features, synchronous with the Greenland/North Atlantic short-term changes. We speculate that such climate synchronicity was forced also by changes in Atlantic meridional overturning circulation coupled with Intertropical Convergence Zone shifting and the northern westerly jets reorganization.
High resolution hematite/goethite records from Chinese loess sequences for the last glacial-interglacial cycle: Rapid climatic response of the East Asian Monsoon to the tropical Pacific