Orbital- and millennial-scale Asian winter monsoon variability across the Pliocene–Pleistocene glacial intensification

Hong Ao (), Diederik Liebrand, Mark J. Dekkers, Andrew P. Roberts, Tara N. Jonell, Zhangdong Jin, Yougui Song, Qingsong Liu, Qiang Sun, Xinxia Li, Chunju Huang, Xiaoke Qiang and Peng Zhang
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Hong Ao: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Diederik Liebrand: University of Manchester
Mark J. Dekkers: Utrecht University
Andrew P. Roberts: Australian National University
Tara N. Jonell: University of Glasgow
Zhangdong Jin: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Yougui Song: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Qingsong Liu: Southern University of Science and Technology
Qiang Sun: Xi’an University of Science and Technology
Xinxia Li: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Chunju Huang: China University of Geosciences (Wuhan)
Xiaoke Qiang: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Peng Zhang: Chinese Academy of Sciences

Nature Communications, 2024, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract Intensification of northern hemisphere glaciation (iNHG), ~2.7 million years ago (Ma), led to establishment of the Pleistocene to present-day bipolar icehouse state. Here we document evolution of orbital- and millennial-scale Asian winter monsoon (AWM) variability across the iNHG using a palaeomagnetically dated centennial-resolution grain size record between 3.6 and 1.9 Ma from a previously undescribed loess-palaeosol/red clay section on the central Chinese Loess Plateau. We find that the late Pliocene–early Pleistocene AWM was characterized by combined 41-kyr and ~100-kyr cycles, in response to ice volume and atmospheric CO2 forcing. Northern hemisphere ice sheet expansion, which was accompanied by an atmospheric CO2 concentration decline, substantially increased glacial AWM intensity and its orbitally oscillating amplitudes across the iNHG. Superposed on orbital variability, we find that millennial AWM intensity fluctuations persisted during both the warmer (higher-CO2) late Pliocene and colder (lower-CO2) early Pleistocene, in response to both external astronomical forcing and internal climate dynamics.

Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-47274-9

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