Northward extent of East Asian monsoon covaries with intensity on orbital and millennial timescales

Yonaton Goldsmith; Wallace S. Broecker; Hai Xu; Pratigya J. Polissar; Peter B. DeMenocal; Naomi Porat; Jianghu Lan; Peng Cheng; Weijian Zhou; Zhisheng An

doi:10.1073/pnas.1616708114

Northward extent of East Asian monsoon covaries with intensity on orbital and millennial timescales

Yonaton Goldsmith^*, Wallace S. Broecker, Hai Xu, Pratigya J. Polissar, Peter B. DeMenocal, Naomi Porat, Jianghu Lan, Peng Cheng, Weijian Zhou, Zhisheng An

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

183 Scopus citations

Abstract

The magnitude, rate, and extent of past and future East Asian monsoon (EAM) rainfall fluctuations remain unresolved. Here, late Pleistocene-Holocene EAM rainfall intensity is reconstructed using a well-dated northeastern China closed-basin lake area record located at the modern northwestern fringe of the EAM. The EAM intensity and northern extent alternated rapidly between wet and dry periods on time scales of centuries. Lake levels were 60 m higher than present during the early and middle Holocene, requiring a twofold increase in annual rainfall, which, based on modern rainfall distribution, requires a ∼400 km northward expansion/migration of the EAM. The lake record is highly correlated with both northern and southern Chinese cave deposit isotope records, supporting rainfall "intensity based" interpretations of these deposits as opposed to an alternative "water vapor sourcing" interpretation. These results indicate that EAM intensity and the northward extent covary on orbital and millennial timescales. The termination of wet conditions at 5.5 ka BP (∼35 m lake drop) triggered a large cultural collapse of Early Neolithic cultures in north China, and possibly promoted the emergence of complex societies of the Late Neolithic.

Original language	American English
Pages (from-to)	1817-1821
Number of pages	5
Journal	Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Volume	114
Issue number	8
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1616708114
State	Published - 21 Feb 2017
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We thank G. Shelach-Lavi for his advice regarding the archaeology of China. We thank E. Sheng and T. Liu for their great help in the field. We thank the editor and two anonymous reviewers whose comments improved the paper. This work was supported by a Gary Comer Science and Education Foundation grant to Y.G. and P.J.P.; Columbia's Center for Climate and Life; the National Basic Research Program of China Grant 2013CB955900; the External Cooperation Program of Bureau of International Cooperation, Chinese Academy of Sciences Grant 132B61KYSB20130003; and Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Contribution no. 8084.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2017, National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.

Keywords

Chinese cave record
Closed-basin lake
East Asian monsoon
Northward expansion
Paleo-rainfall

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10.1073/pnas.1616708114

Cite this

Goldsmith, Y., Broecker, W. S., Xu, H., Polissar, P. J., DeMenocal, P. B., Porat, N., Lan, J., Cheng, P., Zhou, W., & An, Z. (2017). Northward extent of East Asian monsoon covaries with intensity on orbital and millennial timescales. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 114(8), 1817-1821. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1616708114

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abstract = "The magnitude, rate, and extent of past and future East Asian monsoon (EAM) rainfall fluctuations remain unresolved. Here, late Pleistocene-Holocene EAM rainfall intensity is reconstructed using a well-dated northeastern China closed-basin lake area record located at the modern northwestern fringe of the EAM. The EAM intensity and northern extent alternated rapidly between wet and dry periods on time scales of centuries. Lake levels were 60 m higher than present during the early and middle Holocene, requiring a twofold increase in annual rainfall, which, based on modern rainfall distribution, requires a ∼400 km northward expansion/migration of the EAM. The lake record is highly correlated with both northern and southern Chinese cave deposit isotope records, supporting rainfall {"}intensity based{"} interpretations of these deposits as opposed to an alternative {"}water vapor sourcing{"} interpretation. These results indicate that EAM intensity and the northward extent covary on orbital and millennial timescales. The termination of wet conditions at 5.5 ka BP (∼35 m lake drop) triggered a large cultural collapse of Early Neolithic cultures in north China, and possibly promoted the emergence of complex societies of the Late Neolithic.",

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note = "Funding Information: We thank G. Shelach-Lavi for his advice regarding the archaeology of China. We thank E. Sheng and T. Liu for their great help in the field. We thank the editor and two anonymous reviewers whose comments improved the paper. This work was supported by a Gary Comer Science and Education Foundation grant to Y.G. and P.J.P.; Columbia's Center for Climate and Life; the National Basic Research Program of China Grant 2013CB955900; the External Cooperation Program of Bureau of International Cooperation, Chinese Academy of Sciences Grant 132B61KYSB20130003; and Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Contribution no. 8084. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2017, National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.",

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AU - Broecker, Wallace S.

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AU - Polissar, Pratigya J.

AU - DeMenocal, Peter B.

AU - Porat, Naomi

AU - Lan, Jianghu

AU - Cheng, Peng

AU - Zhou, Weijian

AU - An, Zhisheng

N1 - Funding Information: We thank G. Shelach-Lavi for his advice regarding the archaeology of China. We thank E. Sheng and T. Liu for their great help in the field. We thank the editor and two anonymous reviewers whose comments improved the paper. This work was supported by a Gary Comer Science and Education Foundation grant to Y.G. and P.J.P.; Columbia's Center for Climate and Life; the National Basic Research Program of China Grant 2013CB955900; the External Cooperation Program of Bureau of International Cooperation, Chinese Academy of Sciences Grant 132B61KYSB20130003; and Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Contribution no. 8084. Publisher Copyright: © 2017, National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.

PY - 2017/2/21

Y1 - 2017/2/21

N2 - The magnitude, rate, and extent of past and future East Asian monsoon (EAM) rainfall fluctuations remain unresolved. Here, late Pleistocene-Holocene EAM rainfall intensity is reconstructed using a well-dated northeastern China closed-basin lake area record located at the modern northwestern fringe of the EAM. The EAM intensity and northern extent alternated rapidly between wet and dry periods on time scales of centuries. Lake levels were 60 m higher than present during the early and middle Holocene, requiring a twofold increase in annual rainfall, which, based on modern rainfall distribution, requires a ∼400 km northward expansion/migration of the EAM. The lake record is highly correlated with both northern and southern Chinese cave deposit isotope records, supporting rainfall "intensity based" interpretations of these deposits as opposed to an alternative "water vapor sourcing" interpretation. These results indicate that EAM intensity and the northward extent covary on orbital and millennial timescales. The termination of wet conditions at 5.5 ka BP (∼35 m lake drop) triggered a large cultural collapse of Early Neolithic cultures in north China, and possibly promoted the emergence of complex societies of the Late Neolithic.

AB - The magnitude, rate, and extent of past and future East Asian monsoon (EAM) rainfall fluctuations remain unresolved. Here, late Pleistocene-Holocene EAM rainfall intensity is reconstructed using a well-dated northeastern China closed-basin lake area record located at the modern northwestern fringe of the EAM. The EAM intensity and northern extent alternated rapidly between wet and dry periods on time scales of centuries. Lake levels were 60 m higher than present during the early and middle Holocene, requiring a twofold increase in annual rainfall, which, based on modern rainfall distribution, requires a ∼400 km northward expansion/migration of the EAM. The lake record is highly correlated with both northern and southern Chinese cave deposit isotope records, supporting rainfall "intensity based" interpretations of these deposits as opposed to an alternative "water vapor sourcing" interpretation. These results indicate that EAM intensity and the northward extent covary on orbital and millennial timescales. The termination of wet conditions at 5.5 ka BP (∼35 m lake drop) triggered a large cultural collapse of Early Neolithic cultures in north China, and possibly promoted the emergence of complex societies of the Late Neolithic.

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JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

IS - 8

ER -

Northward extent of East Asian monsoon covaries with intensity on orbital and millennial timescales

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

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