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

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.

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Holocene weak summer East Asian monsoon intervals in subtropical Taiwan and their global synchronicity

Climate of the Past Discussions ◽

10.5194/cpd-4-929-2008 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 4 (4) ◽

pp. 929-953 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

K. Selvaraj ◽

C.-T. A. Chen ◽

J.-Y. Lou

Keyword(s):

North Atlantic ◽

Asian Monsoon ◽

East Asian Monsoon ◽

Southern Oscillation ◽

East Asian ◽

Tropical Pacific ◽

Atmospheric Methane ◽

Proxy Records ◽

Monsoon Strength ◽

The Tropical Pacific

Abstract. Sedimentary total organic carbon and carbon-to-nitrogen ratio records from the subalpine Retreat Lake in NE Taiwan reveal four centennial periods (~8–8.3, 5.1–5.7, 4.5–~2.1, and 2–1.6 kyr BP) of relatively reduced summer East Asian monsoon (EAM) precipitation that were superimposed on the insolation-dependent, long-term decreasing monsoon trend during the middle and late Holocene while early Holocene monsoon strength was controlled by glacial boundary conditions. Strikingly, all weak monsoon events correlate with the timings of low sea surface temperature in the tropical Pacific, maxima of hematite stained-grains in the sediments of North Atlantic, reduced formation of North Atlantic Deep Water, and low concentrations of atmospheric methane over Greenland, suggesting a globally well-connected postglacial climate (from ca. 8.6 kyr BP onwards). Persistent linkage of weak summer EAM-tropical Pacific and North Atlantic cooling-reduced global wetland extent during these intervals is believed to be driven by coupled ocean-atmosphere interactions, especially reduced heat and moisture transport and enhanced El Niño-Southern Oscillation in the tropical Pacific, as well as solar activity. Overall similarity of summer EAM with diverse proxy records and their coincidence to abrupt changes witnessed in other paleorecords across the world imply that the centennial-scale reorganizations in the tropical Pacific climate dynamics may have been playing an important role, of course closely in phase with solar variations and North Atlantic climate, in the Holocene summer EAM and, by extension, low-latitude's monsoon instability.

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