Insolation-driven changes in atmospheric circulation over the past 116,000 years in subtropical Brazil

During the last glacial period, large millennial-scale temperature oscillations--the 'Dansgaard/Oeschger' cycles--were the primary climate signal in Northern Hemisphere climate archives from the high latitudes to the tropics. But whether the influence of these abrupt climate changes extended to the tropical and subtropical Southern Hemisphere, where changes in insolation are thought to be the main direct forcing of climate, has remained unclear. Here we present a high-resolution oxygen isotope record of a U/Th-dated stalagmite from subtropical southern Brazil, covering the past 116,200 years. The oxygen isotope signature varies with shifts in the source region and amount of rainfall in the area, and hence records changes in atmospheric circulation and convective intensity over South America. We find that these variations in rainfall source and amount are primarily driven by summer solar radiation, which is controlled by the Earth's precessional cycle. The Dansgaard/Oeschger cycles can be detected in our record and therefore we confirm that they also affect the tropical hydrological cycle, but that in southern subtropical Brazil, millennial-scale climate changes are not as dominant as they are in the Northern Hemisphere.     

Orbital and millennial-scale features of atmospheric CH4 over the past 800,000 years

Atmospheric methane is an important greenhouse gas and a sensitive indicator of climate change and millennial-scale temperature variability. Its concentrations over the past 650,000 years have varied between approximately 350 and approximately 800 parts per 10(9) by volume (p.p.b.v.) during glacial and interglacial periods, respectively. In comparison, present-day methane levels of approximately 1,770 p.p.b.v. have been reported. Insights into the external forcing factors and internal feedbacks controlling atmospheric methane are essential for predicting the methane budget in a warmer world. Here we present a detailed atmospheric methane record from the EPICA Dome C ice core that extends the history of this greenhouse gas to 800,000 yr before present. The average time resolution of the new data is approximately 380 yr and permits the identification of orbital and millennial-scale features. Spectral analyses indicate that the long-term variability in atmospheric methane levels is dominated by approximately 100,000 yr glacial-interglacial cycles up to approximately 400,000 yr ago with an increasing contribution of the precessional component during the four more recent climatic cycles. We suggest that changes in the strength of tropical methane sources and sinks (wetlands, atmospheric oxidation), possibly influenced by changes in monsoon systems and the position of the intertropical convergence zone, controlled the atmospheric methane budget, with an additional source input during major terminations as the retreat of the northern ice sheet allowed higher methane emissions from extending periglacial wetlands. Millennial-scale changes in methane levels identified in our record as being associated with Antarctic isotope maxima events are indicative of ubiquitous millennial-scale temperature variability during the past eight glacial cycles.     

Global and China temperature changes associated with the inter-decadal variations of East Asian summer monsoon advances

The modern atmospheric observation and literatural historical drought-flood records were used to extract the inter-decadal signals of dry-wet modes in eastern China and reveal the possible relationship of global and China temperature changes associated with the East Asian summer monsoon advances.A climate pattern of "wet-north and dry-south" in eastern China and cool period in China and globe are associated with the strong summer monsoon that can advance further to the northernmost part in the East Asian monsoon region.On the contrary,a climate pattern of "dry-north and wet-south" in eastern China and a warm period in China and globe are associated with the weaker summer monsoon that only reaches the southern part in the region.An interdecadal oscillation with the timescale about 60 years was found dominating in both the dry-wet mode index series of the East Asian summer monsoon and the global temperature series after the secular climate states and long-term trend over inter-centennial timescales have been removed.     

Abrupt changes in the Asian southwest monsoon during the Holocene and their links to the North Atlantic Ocean

During the last ice age, the Indian Ocean southwest monsoon exhibited abrupt changes that were closely correlated with millennial-scale climate events in the North Atlantic region, suggesting a mechanistic link. In the Holocene epoch, which had a more stable climate, the amplitude of abrupt changes in North Atlantic climate was much smaller, and it has been unclear whether these changes are related to monsoon variability. Here we present a continuous record of centennial-scale monsoon variability throughout the Holocene from rapidly accumulating and minimally bioturbated sediments in the anoxic Arabian Sea. Our monsoon proxy record reveals several intervals of weak summer monsoon that coincide with cold periods documented in the North Atlantic region--including the most recent climate changes from the Medieval Warm Period to the Little Ice Age and then to the present. We therefore suggest that the link between North Atlantic climate and the Asian monsoon is a persistent aspect of global climate.     

Homogeneous climate variability across East Antarctica over the past three glacial cycles

Recent ice core studies have raised the disturbing possibility that glacial-interglacial climate changes may be non-uniform across Antarctica. These findings have been confined to records from the Ross Sea sector of the continent, but significant deviations in other areas would call into question the widely assumed validity of the climate record obtained from Vostok, East Antarctica, on large spatial scales. Here we present an isotopic profile from a core drilled at Dome Fuji, situated 1,500 km from Vostok in a different sector of East Antarctica. The two records show remarkable similarities over the past three glacial cycles (the extent of the Dome Fuji record) in both large-amplitude changes, such as terminations, interglacials and interstadials and more subtle glacial events, even when the origin of precipitation is accounted for. Our results indicate that Antarctic climate is essentially homogeneous at the scale of the East Antarctic Plateau, possibly as a consequence of the symmetry of the plateau and the adjacent ocean.     

Eastern Pacific cooling and Atlantic overturning circulation during the last deglaciation

Surface ocean conditions in the equatorial Pacific Ocean could hold the clue to whether millennial-scale global climate change during glacial times was initiated through tropical ocean-atmosphere feedbacks or by changes in the Atlantic thermohaline circulation. North Atlantic cold periods during Heinrich events and millennial-scale cold events (stadials) have been linked with climatic changes in the tropical Atlantic Ocean and South America, as well as the Indian and East Asian monsoon systems, but not with tropical Pacific sea surface temperatures. Here we present a high-resolution record of sea surface temperatures in the eastern tropical Pacific derived from alkenone unsaturation measurements. Our data show a temperature drop of approximately 1 degrees C, synchronous (within dating uncertainties) with the shutdown of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation during Heinrich event 1, and a smaller temperature drop of approximately 0.5 degrees C synchronous with the smaller reduction in the overturning circulation during the Younger Dryas event. Both cold events coincide with maxima in surface ocean productivity as inferred from 230Th-normalized carbon burial fluxes, suggesting increased upwelling at the time. From the concurrence of equatorial Pacific cooling with the two North Atlantic cold periods during deglaciation, we conclude that these millennial-scale climate changes were probably driven by a reorganization of the oceans' thermohaline circulation, although possibly amplified by tropical ocean-atmosphere interaction as suggested before.     

贵州荔波42.0kaB.P.~65.0kaB.P.气候变化的石笋记录

对贵州荔波董哥洞D42石笋进行TIMS-U测年和碳、氧同位素分析,建立末次冰期42．0ka B．P．～65．0ka B．P．的古气候变化时间序列。研究结果表明,荔波地区在65．0ka B．P．～42．0ka B．P．石笋记录的冷暖事件所反映出的季风气候变化,大致可分为3个气候阶段;65．0ka B．P．～60．6ka B．P．相当于海洋氧同位素MIS4晚期,反映本阶段东亚冬季风强盛,气温降低,表现为干旱寒冷的气候环境;60．6ka B．P．～48．4ka B．P．相当于海洋氧同位素MIS3早期,反映东亚夏季风相对增强,气温升高,有效降水相对较少,表现为温暖半干旱的气候环境;48．4ka B．P．～42．0ka B．P．相当于海洋氧同位素MIS3中期,显示东亚夏季风由强变弱,东亚冬季风相对增强,表现为干旱冷凉的气候环境。石笋记录揭示的2次寒冷事件在各类沉积物中均有记录,反映为全球变化的气候事件,相当于北大西洋沉积物中的Heinrich5和Heinrich 6冷事件,可以进行全球对比,显示荔波地区与北极地区存在着古气候的遥相关。     

Influence of the intertropical convergence zone on the East Asian monsoon

The Asian-Australian monsoon is an important component of the Earth's climate system that influences the societal and economic activity of roughly half the world's population. The past strength of the rain-bearing East Asian summer monsoon can be reconstructed with archives such as cave deposits, but the winter monsoon has no such signature in the hydrological cycle and has thus proved difficult to reconstruct. Here we present high-resolution records of the magnetic properties and the titanium content of the sediments of Lake Huguang Maar in coastal southeast China over the past 16,000 years, which we use as proxies for the strength of the winter monsoon winds. We find evidence for stronger winter monsoon winds before the B?lling-Aller?d warming, during the Younger Dryas episode and during the middle and late Holocene, when cave stalagmites suggest weaker summer monsoons. We conclude that this anticorrelation is best explained by migrations in the intertropical convergence zone. Similar migrations of the intertropical convergence zone have been observed in Central America for the period ad 700 to 900 (refs 4-6), suggesting global climatic changes at that time. From the coincidence in timing, we suggest that these migrations in the tropical rain belt could have contributed to the declines of both the Tang dynasty in China and the Classic Maya in Central America.     

Long-term trend and abrupt events of the Holocene Asian monsoon inferred from a stalagmite δ18O record from Shennongjia in Central China

The middle-Holocene was a period of profound cul- ture transitions: the Neolithic culture around Central China[1], Mesopotamia[2] and India[3] all mysteriously collapsed around 4 ka . It is plausible that this civiliza-tion collapse can be contributed to …     

Abrupt climate change of EastAsian Monsoon at 130 kaBP inferred from a high resolu-tion stalagmite δ18O record

^230Th ages and oxygen isotope data of a stalagmite from Shanbao Cave in Hubei Province characterize the East Asian Monsoon precipitation from 133 to 127ka. The decadal-scale high-resolution δ^18O record reveals a detailed transitional process from the Penultimate Glaciation to the Last Interglaciation. As established with ^230Th dates, the age of the Termination Ⅱ is determined to be 129.5±1.0 kaBP, which supports the Northern Hemisphere insolation as the triggers for the ice-age cycles. In our δ^18O record, the glacial/interglacial fluctuation reaches about 4‰, almost the same level as in other Asian Monsoon cave stalagmite δ^18O records. The transition of the glacial/interglacial period in our record can be recognized as four stepwise stages, among which, a rapid rise of monsoon precipitation follows the stage of “Termination Ⅱ pause”. The rapid rise is synchronous with the abrupt change of global methane concentration, which reflects that an increase in both Asian Monsoon precipitation and tropical wetland plays an important role in the global climate changes.     

Dynamic control on grain-size distribution of terrigenous sediments in the western South China Sea: Implication for East Asian monsoon evolution

High-resolution oxygen isotope stratigraphy of Core MD05-2901, which is located off eastern Vietnam in the western South China Sea （SCS）, was established and indicated that the core spans a time period of the past 450 ka. Based on the bulk density, fractional porosity and lithogenic content of the sediments, terrigenous mass accumulation rate （TMAR） was obtained, which is 4.9-6.0 g cm^-2 ka^-1 on average during interglacial stages, higher than that during glacial stages, i.e. 1.9-5.0 g cm^-2 ka^-1, which is different from northern and southern SCS which show higher TMAR in glacial stages. By principle component analysis of grain size distribution of all the samples, two main control factors （F1 and F2） were obtained, which are responsible for about 80% variance of granularity. The contents of grain size population 1.26-2.66 μm% and 10.8-14.3 μm% which are sensible to F1 show high-frequency fluctuation, and correlate well with the summer insolation at 15^o N. They exhibit a distinct cyclicity with frequencies near 23 ka and 13 ka, in contrast to a strong frequency peak near 100 ka obtained in proxies 4.24-7.42 μm% and 30.1-43.7 μm% controlled mainly by F2. The sedimentary character of this part of the SCS was controlled by variations of input flux from two main source areas, namely the southwest and north SCS, which were transported by different circulations of surface current forced by East Asian summer monsoon and winter monsoon respectively. We believe that the East Asian summer monsoon has fluctuated with high frequency and been forced by changes in solar insolation in low latitude associated with precession and half precession, while ice-volume forcing is probably a primary factor in determining the strength and timing of the East Asian winter monsoon but with less important insolation forcing.     

Characteristics of decadal-centennial-scale changes in East Asian summer monsoon circulation and precipitation during the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age and in the present day

Using meteorological observations, proxies of precipitation and temperature, and climate simulation outputs, we synthetically analyzed the regularities of decadal-centennial-scale changes in the summer thermal contrast between land and ocean and summer precipitation over the East Asian monsoon region during the past millennium; compared the basic characteristics of the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) circulation and precipitation in the present day, the Little Ice Age (LIA) and the Medieval Warm Period (MWP); and explored their links with solar irradiance and global climate change. The results indicate that over the last 150 years, the EASM circulation and precipitation, indicated by the temperature contrast between the East Asian mainland and adjacent oceans, had a significant decadal perturbation and have been weaker during the period of rapid global warming over the past 50 years. On the centennial time scale, the EASM in the MWP was strongest over the past 1000 years. Over the past 1000 years, the EASM was weakest in 1450-1570. When the EASM circulation was weaker, the monsoon rain belt over eastern China was generally located more southward, with there being less precipitation in North China and more precipitation in the Yangtze River valley; therefore, there was an anomalous pattern of southern flood/northern drought. From the 1900s to 1920s, precipitation had a pat- tern opposite to that of the southern flood/northern drought, with there being less precipitation in the Yangtze River valley and more precipitation in North China. Compared with the case for the MWP, there was a longer-time-scale southern flood/northern drought phenomenon in 1400-1600. Moreover, the EASM circulation and precipitation did not synchronously vary with the trend of global temperature. During the last 150 years, although the annual mean surface temperature around the world and in China has increased, the EASM circulation and precipitation did not have strengthening or weakening trends. Over the past 1000 years, the weakest EASM occurred ahead of the lowest Northern Hemispheric temperature and corresponded to the weakest solar irradiance.     

Late Pleistocene／Holocene wetland events recorded in southeast Tengger Desert lake sediments, NW China

The area along the eastern and southeastern margins of the Tengger Desert, NW China, which is sensitive to the summer monsoon variations, was selected for studying the environmental conditions surrounding the transition between Paleolithic foragers and Neolithic farmer/pastoral-ists. Short cores were obtained from four lake basins in the southwestern Tengger using a hand-driven piston coringdevice. Proxies from these cores were supplemented by ra-diocarbon ages obtained from lake sediment cores, shoreline features and spring mound deposits. Together these records provide evidence of millennial-scale climate change eventsfrom the Pleistocene-Holocene transition to the present.Lake/wetland events, representing periods of more intensive summer monsoon, occur in the records at-12.7-11.6,-10.1, -9.3, -8.0, -5.4, -1.5, and -0.8 ka BP. They do suggest that century- to miliennial-seale climatic cycles are characteristic of the Holocene in the southeastern Tengger Desert although the chronology must be considered extremely tentative.     

East Asian monsoon change for the 21st century: Results of CMIP3 and CMIP5 models

Forty-two climate models participating in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phases 3 and 5 were first evaluated in terms of their ability to simulate the present climatology of the East Asian winter (December-February) and summer (June-August) monsoons. The East Asian winter and summer monsoon changes over the 21st century were then projected using the results of 31 and 29 reliable climate models under the Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES) mid-range A1B scenario or the Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) mid-low-range RCP4.5 scenario, respectively. Results showed that the East Asian winter monsoon changes little over time as a whole relative to the reference period 1980-1999. Regionally, it weakens (strengthens) north (south) of about 25°N in East Asia, which results from atmospheric circulation changes over the western North Pacific and Northeast Asia owing to the weakening and northward shift of the Aleutian Low, and from decreased north- west-southeast thermal and sea level pressure differences across Northeast Asia. In summer, monsoon strengthens slightly in East China over the 21st century as a consequence of an increased land-sea thermal contrast between the East Asian continent and the adjacent western North Pacific and South China Sea.     

川东北宋家洞石笋氧碳同位素及锶含量突变分析

通过对宋家洞石笋SJ3的氧碳同位素及锶含量进行Mann-Kendall test突变分析,得出以下结论:(1)氧同位素值记录了末次冰盛期向Heinrich Event 1时期的转变;(2)碳同位素值和锶含量记录了由H1冷期向BФlling-AllerФd暖期的转变;(3)碳同位素值和锶含量指示了在19.8～15.3ka时当地的东亚夏季风和冬季风呈正相关关系,在15.3～14.8 ka呈负相关关系,表明石笋SJ3记录了古气候环境的冷干、暖湿变化,且不同气候指标对环境变化的敏感度不同。     

Orbital- and millennial-scale variability of the Asian monsoon during MIS8 from Sanbao Cave at Mount Shennongjia,central China

One stalagmite oxygen isotope record from Sanbao Cave, China, established with 7 230Th ages and 355 oxygen isotope data, pro- vides a continuous history of the East Asian Monsoon (EAM) intensity for the period from 284 to 240 thousand years before present (ka BP) with typical errors of 3―4 ka. This new record extends the previously published stalagmite δ18O record back to the marine oxygen isotope stage (MIS) 8. The MIS8 EAM record broadly follows orbitally-induced insolation variations and is punctuated by...     

Orbit-related long-term climate cycles revealed in a 12-Myr continental record from Lake Baikal

Quaternary records of climate change from terrestrial sources, such as lake sediments and aeolian sediments, in general agree well with marine records. But continuous records that cover more than the past one million years were essentially unavailable until recently, when the high-sedimentation-rate site of Lake Baikal was exploited. Because of its location in the middle latitudes, Lake Baikal is highly sensitive to insolation changes and the entire lake remained uncovered by ice sheets throughout the Pleistocene epoch, making it a valuable archive for past climate. Here we examine long sediment cores from Lake Baikal that cover the past 12 million years. Our record reveals a gradual cooling of the Asian continental interior, with some fluctuations. Spectral analyses reveal periods of about 400 kyr, 600 kyr and 1,000 kyr, which may correspond to Milankovitch periods (reflecting orbital cycles). Our results indicate that changes in insolation were closely related to long-term environmental variations in the deep continental interior, over the past 12 million years.     

Northern Hemisphere forcing of climatic cycles in Antarctica over the past 360,000 years

The Milankovitch theory of climate change proposes that glacial-interglacial cycles are driven by changes in summer insolation at high northern latitudes. The timing of climate change in the Southern Hemisphere at glacial-interglacial transitions (which are known as terminations) relative to variations in summer insolation in the Northern Hemisphere is an important test of this hypothesis. So far, it has only been possible to apply this test to the most recent termination, because the dating uncertainty associated with older terminations is too large to allow phase relationships to be determined. Here we present a new chronology of Antarctic climate change over the past 360,000 years that is based on the ratio of oxygen to nitrogen molecules in air trapped in the Dome Fuji and Vostok ice cores. This ratio is a proxy for local summer insolation, and thus allows the chronology to be constructed by orbital tuning without the need to assume a lag between a climate record and an orbital parameter. The accuracy of the chronology allows us to examine the phase relationships between climate records from the ice cores and changes in insolation. Our results indicate that orbital-scale Antarctic climate change lags Northern Hemisphere insolation by a few millennia, and that the increases in Antarctic temperature and atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration during the last four terminations occurred within the rising phase of Northern Hemisphere summer insolation. These results support the Milankovitch theory that Northern Hemisphere summer insolation triggered the last four deglaciations.     

三门峡王官与武威沙沟黄土记录中的末次间冰期向末次冰期转换期的暖性回返事件

河南三门峡王官剖面与甘肃武威沙沟剖面捕捉到了末次间冰期向末次冰期转换时期发生于72 ka前后持续时间约为2 ka的一暖性回返事件,两剖面的冬、夏季风替代指标对该暖性回返事件的反应在时间上大致同步(其时间段约为71～73 ka,在71.4～72.1 ka前后该暖性回返事件最强盛),暗示该暖性回返事件在东亚季风区可能是一普遍存在的气候突变事件.鉴于该暖性回返事件在全球其他地区的海洋、陆地、冰芯记录中也有较普遍的反映,我们认为该事件很可能是一次发生于气候转型期的全球普遍存在的暖性突变事件.     

Interconnections between the Asian monsoon, ENSO, and high northern latitude climate during the Holocene

The International Geosphere Biosphere Program (IGBP), which promotes better understanding of the living environment, was initiated in the early 1990s. IGBP and other programs have uncovered much evi-dence that the Earth system is complex and nonlinear, ex…