Northern hemisphere ice sheet expansion intensified Asian aridification and the winter monsoon across the mid-Pleistocene transition

Ao, H. et al. (2023) Northern hemisphere ice sheet expansion intensified Asian aridification and the winter monsoon across the mid-Pleistocene transition. Communications Earth and Environment, 4(1), 36. (doi: 10.1038/s43247-023-00686-9)

Abstract

The mid-Pleistocene transition 1.25 to 0.6 million years ago marked a major shift in global climate periodicity from 41,000 to around 100,000 years without a concomitant orbital forcing shift. Here, we investigate Asian climate dynamics associated with two extreme glacial loess coarsening events at the onset and middle of the mid-Pleistocene transition by combining new and existing grain size and magnetic susceptibility records from the Chinese Loess Plateau spanning the last 1.6 million years with general circulation model simulations. We find that the two extreme glacial events reflect exceptionally enhanced Asian aridification and winter monsoon activity. They coincided with notable Northern Hemisphere glacial ice sheet expansion at 1.25 and 0.9 million years ago when the 100,000-year periodicity initiated and intensified, respectively. Our results indicate that these anomalously dry and windy Asian glacials were probably driven by an amplified terrestrial climate response to the coincident Northern Hemisphere ice sheet expansion.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: This study was supported by the Chinese Academy of Science Strategic Priority Research Program (XDB26000000), the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research (STEP) program (2019QZKK0707), the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Science and Technology Innovation Project of Laoshan Laboratory (LSKJ202203300), the Shaanxi Provence Youth Talent Support Program, the Opening Foundation of the Key Laboratory of Marine Geology and Metallogeny, MNR (MGM202001), Australian Research Council (ARC) Australian Laureate Fellowship grant FL120100050 to E.J.R., ARC grant DP120103952 to A.P.R., and Heising-Simons Foundation Grant #2016-05 to C.J.P.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Jonell, Dr Tara
• Authors: Ao, H., Rohling, E. J., Li, X., Song, Y., Roberts, A. P., Han, Y., Poulsen, C. J., Jonell, T. N., Liebrand, D., Sun, Q., Li, X., Qiang, X., Zhang, P., and Dekkers, M. J.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Geographical and Earth Sciences
• Journal Name: Communications Earth and Environment
• Publisher: Nature Research
• ISSN: 2662-4435
• ISSN (Online): 2662-4435
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2023 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Communications Earth and Environment 4(1):36
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License