Suborbital- and millennial-scale monsoon variability during Pleistocene interglacials
Abstract
Observational and modeling results show that the frequency and amplitude of extreme climatic events have increased significantly in the context of global warming. However, whether abrupt climate changes intensified during past warm periods remains poorly constrained due to the lack of high-resolution geological records. Here, we report a 512-m predominantly lacustrine sedimentary record from the Weihe Basin (North China), revealing that lake levels fluctuated significantly on suborbital (half- and quarter-precession) and millennial timescales over the last 2 Ma. Grain-size results reveal that magnitudes of rapid lake level fluctuations increased dramatically during Pleistocene interglacials, differing from glacial amplification of abrupt climate events recorded in North Atlantic marine sediments. Model results indicate that summer insolation maxima in low-latitude region of both hemispheres can lead to intensified monsoon precipitation in East Asia. Our proxy-model comparison highlights the importance of low-latitude bihemispheric insolation maxima in driving millennial-scale hydroclimatic variability in a warming future.
Article Details
Journal Info
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
National Academy of Sciences
Authors (15)
Youbin Sun
State Key Laboratory of Loess Science, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Ting Wang
Department of Radiation Oncology The Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Zhengzhou University and Henan Cancer Hospital Zhengzhou China
Qiuzhen Yin
Earth and Climate Research Center, Earth and Life Institute, Université catholique de Louvain
Steven C. Clemens
Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences, Brown University
Xingxing Liu
State Key Laboratory of Loess Science, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Li Ai
State Key Laboratory of Loess Science, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Zhipeng Wu
Earth and Climate Research Center, Earth and Life Institute, Université catholique de Louvain
Xiaoke Qiang
State Key Laboratory of Loess Science, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Xulong Wang
State Key Laboratory of Loess Science, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Hong Chang
State Key Laboratory of Loess Science, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Yougui Song
State Key Laboratory of Loess Science, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Hendrik Vogel
Institute of Geological Sciences & Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern
John Dodson
State Key Laboratory of Loess Science, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Andre Berger
Earth and Climate Research Center, Earth and Life Institute, Université catholique de Louvain
Zhisheng An
State Key Laboratory of Loess Science, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences