Diverse manifestations of the mid-Pleistocene climate transition

• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-08257-9
• Publication Date: 2019-01-21T11:02:40Z
• Authors: Youbin Sun; Qiuzhen Yin; Michel Crucifix; Steven C. Clemens; Pablo Araya-Melo; Weiguo Liu; Xiaoke Qiang; Qingsong Liu; Hui Zhao; Lianji Liang; Hongyun Chen; Ying Li; Li Zhang; Guocheng Dong; Ming Li; Weijian Zhou; Andre Berger; Zhisheng An
• Keywords: CHINESE LOESS; MAGNETOSTRATIGRAPHY; 550; Science; Q; CARBON-DIOXIDE CONCENTRATION; 500; 15. Life on land; LOESS-PALEOSOL SEQUENCE; 01 natural sciences; Article; NORTH-ATLANTIC; Multidisciplinary Sciences; ASIAN SUMMER MONSOON; INSOLATION; 13. Climate action; ICE SHEETS; EAST-ASIA; Science & Technology - Other Topics; SENSITIVITY; 0105 earth and related environmental sciences

AbstractThe mid-Pleistocene transition (MPT) is widely recognized as a shift in paleoclimatic periodicity from 41- to 100-kyr cycles, which largely reflects integrated changes in global ice volume, sea level, and ocean temperature from the marine realm. However, much less is known about monsoon-induced terrestrial vegetation change across the MPT. Here, on the basis of a 1.7-million-year δ13C record of loess carbonates from the Chinese Loess Plateau, we document a unique MPT reflecting terrestrial vegetation changes from a dominant 23-kyr periodicity before 1.2 Ma to combined 100, 41, and 23-kyr cycles after 0.7 Ma, very different from the conventional MPT characteristics. Model simulations further reveal that the MPT transition likely reflects decreased sensitivity of monsoonal hydroclimate to insolation forcing as the Northern Hemisphere became increasingly glaciated through the MPT. Our proxy-model comparison suggests varied responses of temperature and precipitation to astronomical forcing under different ice/CO2 boundary conditions, which greatly improves our understanding of monsoon variability and dynamics from the natural past to the anthropogenic future.