RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Combined high- and low-latitude forcing of East Asian monsoon precipitation variability in the Pliocene warm period
JF Science Advances
JO Sci Adv
FD American Association for the Advancement of Science
SP eabc2414
DO 10.1126/sciadv.abc2414
VO 6
IS 46
A1 Wang, Yichao
A1 Lu, Huayu
A1 Wang, Kexin
A1 Wang, Yao
A1 Li, Yongxiang
A1 Clemens, Steven
A1 Lv, Hengzhi
A1 Huang, Zihan
A1 Wang, Hanlin
A1 Hu, Xuzhi
A1 Lu, Fuzhi
A1 Zhang, Hanzhi
YR 2020
UL http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/46/eabc2414.abstract
AB East Asian monsoon variability in the Pliocene warm world has not been sufficiently studied because of the lack of direct records. We present a high-resolution precipitation record from Pliocene fluvial-lacustrine sequences in the Weihe Basin, Central China, a region sensitive to the East Asian monsoon. The record shows an abrupt monsoon shift at ~4.2 million years ago, interpreted as the result of high-latitude cooling, with an extratropical temperature decrease across a critical threshold. The precipitation time series exhibits a pronounced ~100–thousand year periodicity and the presence of precession and half-precession cycles, which suggest low-latitude forcing. The synchronous phase but mismatched amplitudes of the East Asian monsoon precipitation proxy and eccentricity suggest a nonlinear but sensitive precipitation response to temperature forcing in the Pliocene warm world. These observations highlight the role of high- and low-latitude forcing of East Asian monsoon variations on tectonic and orbital time scales.