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; Peng Zhang

doi:10.1038/s41467-024-47274-9

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
, Peng Zhang

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

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.

Original language	English
Article number	3364
Number of pages	10
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	15
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-47274-9
Publication status	Published - 19 Apr 2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2024.

Funding

We thank professor Zhisheng An and Dr. A.C. Da Silva for helpful discussions. This study was supported financially by the Chinese Academy of Sciences Strategic Priority Research Program (XDB 40000000 to H.A.), the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research Program (2019QZKK0707 to H.A.), the Chinese Academy of Sciences Key Research Program of Frontier Sciences (QYZDB-SSW-DQC021 to H.A.), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (42074076 to H.A.), the Fund of Shandong Province (LSKJ202203300 to H.A. and\u00A0P.Z.), the Shaanxi Province Youth Talent Support Program (to H.A.), and the Australian Research Council (DP200100765 to A.P.R.). We thank professor Zhisheng An and Dr. A.C. Da Silva for helpful discussions. This study was supported financially by the Chinese Academy of Sciences Strategic Priority Research Program (XDB 40000000 to H.A.), the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research Program (2019QZKK0707 to H.A.), the Chinese Academy of Sciences Key Research Program of Frontier Sciences (QYZDB-SSW-DQC021 to H.A.), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (42074076 to H.A.), the Fund of Shandong Province (LSKJ202203300 to H.A. and P.Z.), the Shaanxi Province Youth Talent Support Program (to H.A.), and the Australian Research Council (DP200100765 to A.P.R.).

Funders	Funder number
Shaanxi Province
Chinese Academy of Sciences	XDB 40000000, 2019QZKK0707
Key Research Program of Frontier Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences	QYZDB-SSW-DQC021
Fund of Shandong Province	LSKJ202203300
Australian Research Council	DP200100765
National Natural Science Foundation of China	42074076

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s41467-024-47274-9Final published version, 3.06 MBLicence: CC BY

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

abstract = "Intensification of northern hemisphere glaciation (iNHG), \textasciitilde{}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 \textasciitilde{}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.",

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AU - Jonell, Tara N.

AU - Jin, Zhangdong

AU - Song, Yougui

AU - Liu, Qingsong

AU - Sun, Qiang

AU - Li, Xinxia

AU - Huang, Chunju

AU - Qiang, Xiaoke

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N2 - 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.

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

Abstract

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Funding

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