Holocene variability of the East Asian summer monsoon from Chinese cave records: a re-assessment
Oxygen isotope records from stalagmites in caves in southern China, interpreted as proxy rainfall records reflecting the intensity of the East Asian summer monsoon, indicate gradual monsoon weakening for the last ~9000 years, as also documented for the Indian monsoon. Coupled with high-precision dat...
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crsagepubl:10.1177/0959683608095569 2024-06-23T07:55:14+00:00 Holocene variability of the East Asian summer monsoon from Chinese cave records: a re-assessment Maher, B.A. 2008 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0959683608095569 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0959683608095569 en eng SAGE Publications http://journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license The Holocene volume 18, issue 6, page 861-866 ISSN 0959-6836 1477-0911 journal-article 2008 crsagepubl https://doi.org/10.1177/0959683608095569 2024-06-04T06:25:13Z Oxygen isotope records from stalagmites in caves in southern China, interpreted as proxy rainfall records reflecting the intensity of the East Asian summer monsoon, indicate gradual monsoon weakening for the last ~9000 years, as also documented for the Indian monsoon. Coupled with high-precision dating, the speleothem proxy records have been used to test monsoon links with orbital forcing, solar changes, iceberg discharges in the North Atlantic, ocean currents and atmospheric methane. However, these `benchmark' cave records do not match other published, dated E Asian proxy rainfall records (specifically here, independently calibrated rainfall records from loess/palaeosol magnetic properties, and cave oxygen isotope intercomparisons), which show variable E Asian monsoon intensity through the entire Holocene. The strong correlation of the cave records with the extraregional Indian monsoon record yet their mismatch with these other dated Chinese rainfall records might be reconciled if the speleothem isotope variations reflect not changes in Holocene rainfall amount but in rainfall source. Declining Holocene influence of isotopically lighter, Indian monsoon-sourced moisture over China would have resulted in increasing proportions of isotopically heavier rainfall, sourced from the more oceanic E Asian monsoon. Individual speleothems may thus regionally record Holocene changes in Indian monsoon intensity and isotopic influence. Conversely, the other Chinese proxy records described here reflect changes in rainfall amount, and thus in E Asian summer monsoon intensity. For the Holocene, the E Asian and the Indian monsoon responses to orbital forcing are likely to have differed, specifically due to E Asian internal feedbacks and the seasonal contrasts between the two monsoon systems. Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic SAGE Publications Indian The Holocene 18 6 861 866 |
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description |
Oxygen isotope records from stalagmites in caves in southern China, interpreted as proxy rainfall records reflecting the intensity of the East Asian summer monsoon, indicate gradual monsoon weakening for the last ~9000 years, as also documented for the Indian monsoon. Coupled with high-precision dating, the speleothem proxy records have been used to test monsoon links with orbital forcing, solar changes, iceberg discharges in the North Atlantic, ocean currents and atmospheric methane. However, these `benchmark' cave records do not match other published, dated E Asian proxy rainfall records (specifically here, independently calibrated rainfall records from loess/palaeosol magnetic properties, and cave oxygen isotope intercomparisons), which show variable E Asian monsoon intensity through the entire Holocene. The strong correlation of the cave records with the extraregional Indian monsoon record yet their mismatch with these other dated Chinese rainfall records might be reconciled if the speleothem isotope variations reflect not changes in Holocene rainfall amount but in rainfall source. Declining Holocene influence of isotopically lighter, Indian monsoon-sourced moisture over China would have resulted in increasing proportions of isotopically heavier rainfall, sourced from the more oceanic E Asian monsoon. Individual speleothems may thus regionally record Holocene changes in Indian monsoon intensity and isotopic influence. Conversely, the other Chinese proxy records described here reflect changes in rainfall amount, and thus in E Asian summer monsoon intensity. For the Holocene, the E Asian and the Indian monsoon responses to orbital forcing are likely to have differed, specifically due to E Asian internal feedbacks and the seasonal contrasts between the two monsoon systems. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Maher, B.A. |
spellingShingle |
Maher, B.A. Holocene variability of the East Asian summer monsoon from Chinese cave records: a re-assessment |
author_facet |
Maher, B.A. |
author_sort |
Maher, B.A. |
title |
Holocene variability of the East Asian summer monsoon from Chinese cave records: a re-assessment |
title_short |
Holocene variability of the East Asian summer monsoon from Chinese cave records: a re-assessment |
title_full |
Holocene variability of the East Asian summer monsoon from Chinese cave records: a re-assessment |
title_fullStr |
Holocene variability of the East Asian summer monsoon from Chinese cave records: a re-assessment |
title_full_unstemmed |
Holocene variability of the East Asian summer monsoon from Chinese cave records: a re-assessment |
title_sort |
holocene variability of the east asian summer monsoon from chinese cave records: a re-assessment |
publisher |
SAGE Publications |
publishDate |
2008 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0959683608095569 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0959683608095569 |
geographic |
Indian |
geographic_facet |
Indian |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_source |
The Holocene volume 18, issue 6, page 861-866 ISSN 0959-6836 1477-0911 |
op_rights |
http://journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1177/0959683608095569 |
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The Holocene |
container_volume |
18 |
container_issue |
6 |
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861 |
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866 |
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1802647725507870720 |