Pleistocene terrestrial warming trend in East Asia linked to Antarctic ice sheets growth
Abstract
Abstract How terrestrial mean annual temperature (MAT) evolved throughout the past 2 million years (Myr) remains elusive, limiting our understanding of the patterns, mechanisms, and impacts of past temperature changes. Here we report a ~2-Myr terrestrial MAT record based on fossil microbial lipids preserved in the Heqing paleolake, East Asia. The increased amplitude and periodicity shift of glacial-interglacial changes in our record align with those in sea surface temperature (SST) records. However, its long-term warming trend (1.0 °C/Myr, 95% CI = 0.4–1.7 °C/Myr) during 1.8–0.6 Myr ago diverges from the contemporaneous SST cooling. We propose that the Pleistocene warming in East Asia primarily resulted from regionally enhanced heat input and greenhouse effect of rising water vapor driven by Antarctic ice sheets (AIS) growth, highlighting the important climatic effect of AIS evolution. Such long-term warming across the Mid-Pleistocene Transition might have been beneficial for archaic humans’ flourishing in Eurasia.
Article Details
Authors (21)
Huanye Wang
Weiguo Liu
Zhonghui Liu
Xiaoke Qiang
State Key Laboratory of Loess Science, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Xinwen Xu
Jing Lei
State Key Laboratory of Loess Science, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Zhengguo Shi
State Key Laboratory of Loess Science, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Yunning Cao
Jing Hu
Fengyan Lu
Hongxuan Lu
Xiaolin Ma
School of Cultural Heritage and Information Management, Shanghai University
Youbin Sun
State Key Laboratory of Loess Science, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Zhangdong Jin
Hong Ao
Zeke Zhang
State Key Laboratory of Loess Science, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Hu Liu
Yong Hu
Hong Yan
State Key Laboratory of Coordination Chemistry, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Organic Materials, School of Chemistry
Weijian Zhou
State Key Laboratory of Loess Science, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Zhisheng An
State Key Laboratory of Loess Science, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences