A data-model comparison pinpoints Holocene spatiotemporal pattern of East Asian summer monsoon

Haiwei Zhang, Xu Zhang, Yanjun Cai, Ashish Sinha, Christoph Spötl, Jonathan Baker, Gayatri Kathayat, Zhengyu Liu, Ye Tian, Jiayu Lu, Zhenqian Wang, Jingyao Zhao, Xuexue Jia, Wenjing Du, Youfeng Ning, Zhisheng An, R. Lawrence Edwards, Hai Cheng

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

83 Scopus citations

Abstract

Conflicting reconstructions of Holocene variability of the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) from speleothem versus other types of proxy records have yielded widely divergent estimates of its phase relationship with the Indian summer monsoon (ISM) and Northern Hemisphere summer insolation (NHSI). This apparent discrepancy has been partly attributed to the uncertainties in the climatic representation of Chinese speleothem oxygen isotope (δ18O) records. Here we present a composite speleothem δ18O record of the last ∼14 kyr from Shennong Cave in southeastern China and model-simulated data of rainfall and meteoric δ18O over eastern China. Our synthesis of the proxy-model data suggests that the spatial patterns in both speleothem δ18O and paleo-rainfall over eastern China during the Holocene are diverse at orbital and multi-millennial scales. Our findings imply that: 1) speleothem δ18O in the EASM regime is largely controlled by the large-scale circulation and concomitant latitudinal shifts of the monsoon rain belt; notwithstanding the heterogeneous spatiotemporal pattern of Holocene rainfall as inferred from various proxy records, a coherent orbital-scale speleothem δ18O variability across most Asian monsoon regions (except southeastern China) indeed stems from the NHSI-forced changes in overall monsoon intensity; overall monsoon intensity is not equivalent to monsoon rainfall amount but a manifestation of the large-scale atmospheric circulation; 2) divergent phase relationships with NHSI between speleothem δ18O and other proxy records are consistent with—rather than contradictory to—the NHSI forcing mechanism. Speleothem δ18O and rainfall records reflect two different aspects of the monsoon dynamics. These results may thus, largely help to reconcile the divergent views of the Holocene Asian monsoon variability.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number106911
JournalQuaternary Science Reviews
Volume261
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 1 2021

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier Ltd

Keywords

  • East Asian summer monsoon (EASM)
  • Holocene
  • Northern hemisphere summer insolation (NHSI)
  • Spatiotemporal pattern
  • Speleothem

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'A data-model comparison pinpoints Holocene spatiotemporal pattern of East Asian summer monsoon'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this