East Asian Monsoonal Climate Sensitivity Changed in the Late Pliocene in Response to Northern Hemisphere Glaciations

Mio-Pliocene sedimentary archives of the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) in NE Tibet record a monotonic response to orbital forcing, dominated by eccentricity. By contrast, Pleistocene archives display a more stochastic response that varies regionally and temporally. When and why this response changed is poorly understood. Here, we present a new high-resolution Rb/Sr ratio data set of EASM intensity from the Sanmenxia Basin, North China, that spans the Plio-Pleistocene transition. Our results indicate decreased monsoonal rainfall in the late Pliocene, dated at 2.75-2.6 Ma, associated with an intensified response to obliquity and enhanced climate stochasticity. This transition is attributed to the increase of Northern Hemisphere ice volume. Quaternary monsoons display a sensitivity unique to the modern icehouse with large bipolar ice sheets, while pre-Quaternary monsoons were solely impacted by Antarctic ice sheet dynamics on orbital time-scales.

Automated summary

Sedimentary archives from the Mio-Pliocene and Pleistocene periods in NE Tibet show a different response to orbital forcing. While the Mio-Pliocene records demonstrate a monotonic response dominated by eccentricity, the Pleistocene records display a more stochastic response that varies regionally and temporally. The transition between these two responses is attributed to the increase in Northern Hemisphere ice volume, leading to a decreased monsoonal rainfall in the late Pliocene and a heightened response to obliquity and climate stochasticity.