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An annually laminated stalagmite from the eastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau provides evidence of climate instability during the early MIS5e in the Asian summer monsoon

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Abstract

The Marine Isotope Stage (MIS5e) is characterized by a warmer climate than that of the pre-industrial period, and serves as an analog for the Current Warm Period (CWP). However, uncertainties persist regarding its climatic stability. Here, we retrieved a stalagmite (WXB075) from Wanxiang Cave in the eastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, and employed absolute 230Th dating and relative annual layer data to establish a high-precision chronological framework for reconstructing the history of the Asian summer monsoon (ASM) and environmental evolution during early MIS5e with multiple proxies. The findings indicate that the annually laminated stalagmite was formed during Cooling Event 27 (C27). The deposition of WXB075 experienced a hiatus (∼125.58 ka BP) due to a significant cooling event in the North Atlantic, which may be linked to the unstable climate in the Northern Hemisphere. Additionally, the impact of meltwater discharge in high northern latitudes results in a two-phase evolution of the ASM, i.e., an initial weaker stage followed by a gradual increase (with the exception of deposition hiatus). The climatic instability of ASM is generally characterized by a quasi-60 year cycle that affects vegetation conditions, biological productivity, and karst hydroclimate dynamics. However, the increase in meltwater and decrease in temperature in the Northern Hemisphere have led to a weakened ASM and subsequent reduction in precipitation. Consequently, vegetation degradation above the cave has occurred along with a slowdown of karst hydroclimate. The vegetation conditions, organic matter content, and wet/drought of the karst hydroclimate were affected by both the large-scale monsoon circulation and local environment during extreme weakening (strengthening) of the monsoon when high-frequency climatic events of ASM occurred. A comparison of δ18O records between early MIS5e and the past 2000 years reveals that the climate during early MIS5e differed significantly from that of CWP, Medieval Warm Period (MWP), and Dark Age Cold Period (DACP) but was similar to Little Ice Age (LIA). Comparison with other geological records from the Northern Hemisphere indicates that climate instability was a widespread phenomenon during MIS5e. The power spectrum analysis of WXB075 δ18O reveals significant quasi-60 and 35 a cycles during the early MIS5e, which is consistent with the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO). The comprehensive results demonstrate that the ASM in the early MIS5e was closely linked to solar activity, Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) position, and Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC).

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Tourism Administration of Wanxiang Cave for supporting the cave investigation and field sampling. Thanks to the two anonymous reviewers for their valuable suggestions on revising the paper. We also thank Xiaoli QU, an engineer from the Lab of Biofabrication, School of Mechanical Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, China, who provided significant help during stalagmite layer scanning. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 41873001 & 41473009).

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  1. Key Laboratory of Mineral Resources in Western China (Gansu Province) and School of Earth Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    Tao Gao, Pingzhong Zhang, Leilei Zhang, Xinhu Li, Hongyu Shi & Wei Jia

  2. Institute of Global Environmental Change, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, 710054, China

    Hai Cheng, Youfeng Ning & Hanying Li

  3. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, 55455, USA

    Hai Cheng & R. Lawrence Edwards

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  1. Tao Gao
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Correspondence to Pingzhong Zhang.

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Gao, T., Zhang, P., Cheng, H. et al. An annually laminated stalagmite from the eastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau provides evidence of climate instability during the early MIS5e in the Asian summer monsoon. Sci. China Earth Sci. 66, 1147–1164 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-022-1054-x

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