Northern hemisphere ice sheet expansion intensified Asian aridification and the winter monsoon across the mid-Pleistocene transition

• Main Authors: Ao, Hong, Rohling, Eelco J., Li, Xinzhou, Song, Yougui, Roberts, Andrew P., Han, Yongming, Poulsen, Christopher J., Jonell, Tara N., Liebrand, Diederik, Sun, Qiang, Li, Xinxia, Qiang, Xiaoke, Zhang, Peng, Dekkers, Mark J.
• Other Authors: Paleomagnetism
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2023
• Subjects: Last glacial maximum; Middle pleistocene transition; Chinese loess plateau; Western qaidam basin; Tibetan plateau; Climate; Evolution; Temperature; Records; Volume; Environmental Science(all); Earth and Planetary Sciences(all); Ice Sheet
• Online Access: https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/428799

The mid-Pleistocene transition 1.25 to 0.6 million years ago marked a major shift in global climate periodicity from 41,000 to around 100,000 years without a concomitant orbital forcing shift. Here, we investigate Asian climate dynamics associated with two extreme glacial loess coarsening events at the onset and middle of the mid-Pleistocene transition by combining new and existing grain size and magnetic susceptibility records from the Chinese Loess Plateau spanning the last 1.6 million years with general circulation model simulations. We find that the two extreme glacial events reflect exceptionally enhanced Asian aridification and winter monsoon activity. They coincided with notable Northern Hemisphere glacial ice sheet expansion at 1.25 and 0.9 million years ago when the 100,000-year periodicity initiated and intensified, respectively. Our results indicate that these anomalously dry and windy Asian glacials were probably driven by an amplified terrestrial climate response to the coincident Northern Hemisphere ice sheet expansion.