The Holocene Asian Monsoon: Links to Solar Changes and North Atlantic Climate

• Published in: Science
• Main Authors: Wang, Yongjin, Cheng, Hai, Edwards, R. Lawrence, He, Yaoqi, Kong, Xinggong, An, Zhisheng, Wu, Jiangying, Kelly, Megan J., Dykoski, Carolyn A., Li, Xiangdong
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2005
• Subjects: North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1106296; https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.1106296

A 5-year-resolution absolute-dated oxygen isotope record from Dongge Cave, southern China, provides a continuous history of the Asian monsoon over the past 9000 years. Although the record broadly follows summer insolation, it is punctuated by eight weak monsoon events lasting ∼1 to 5 centuries. One correlates with the “8200-year” event, another with the collapse of the Chinese Neolithic culture, and most with North Atlantic ice-rafting events. Cross-correlation of the decadal- to centennial-scale monsoon record with the atmospheric carbon-14 record shows that some, but not all, of the monsoon variability at these frequencies results from changes in solar output.