Global cooling and enhanced Eocene Asian mid-latitude interior aridity

Li, J. X.; Yue, Leping; Roberts, Andrew P.; Hirt, Ann M.; Pan, Feng; Ge, Lin; Yong, Xu; Xi, Rengang; Le, Guo; Qiang, Xiaoke; Gai, Congcong; Jiang, Zhaoxia; Sun, Zhilei; Liu, Qingsong

doi:10.1038/s41467-018-05415-x

Cited by 54 publications

(94 citation statements)

References 57 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…2) reduced moisture supply to Central Asia along with the late Oligocene to Miocene uplift of the Pamir and Tian Shan ranges, isolating the Taklimakan sand sea as well as the Tengger and other deserts further eastward [e.g., (16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)]. Resulting long-term Cenozoic drying of the region may also relate to global cooling, reducing monsoons and the hydrological cycle (16,24,25), or the tectonically driven northward motion of the Tibetan region and associated atmospheric circulation systems (26)(27)(28). Disentangling the effects of these diverse climatic and geological forces on ecosystem evolution in Central Asia has proven challenging; extended palaeofloral reference sections with reliable age control are rare, hampering interbasinal and global correlation to environmental and climatic archives.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cenozoic evolution of the steppe-desert biome in Central Asia

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The origins and development of the arid and highly seasonal steppe-desert biome in Central Asia, the largest of its kind in the world, remain largely unconstrained by existing records. It is unclear how Cenozoic climatic, geological, and biological forces, acting at diverse spatial and temporal scales, shaped Central Asian ecosystems through time. Our synthesis shows that the Central Asian steppe-desert has existed since at least Eocene times but experienced no less than two regime shifts, one at the Eocene–Oligocene Transition and one in the mid-Miocene. These shifts separated three successive “stable states,” each characterized by unique floral and faunal structures. Past responses to disturbance in the Asian steppe-desert imply that modern ecosystems are unlikely to recover their present structures and diversity if forced into a new regime. This is of concern for Asian steppes today, which are being modified for human use and lost to desertification at unprecedented rates.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cenozoic evolution of the steppe-desert biome in Central Asia

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Eolian deposits from the Loess Plateau of China and the North Pacific are good proxies of aridification of the Asian interior (Guo et al, 2002;Rea et al 1998). There have been many geological records suggesting various degrees of aridification in the Asian interior during the Pliocene to late-Miocene (Sun and An 2002;, Miocene (Caves et al, 2016), Oligocene-Miocene transition , and the Eocene (Bosboom et al, 2014;Fang et al, 2015;Li et al, 2018a). However, the best way to describe the changes in the East Asia arid region is through using various biogeological evidences to reconstruct the spatial patterns of paleoenvironments during different geological periods, rather than being restrained to individual records at specific locations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, the late-Eocene CO2 concentration was several times higher than today's level, which may have effectively intensified hydrological cycle and produced monsoon climates at that time (Licht et al, 2014). As regard to the causes of aridification during geological times, some geological evidence suggested that the aridification of the Asian interior was related to the retreat of the Paratethys Sea (Bosboom et al, 2014;, uplift of the Tibetan Plateau (Rea et al, 1998;Dettman et al, 2003), and the global cooling during the Cenozoic (Lu and Guo, 2014;Fang et al, 2015;Li et al, 2018a). Numerical modeling studies, however, tended to emphasize the effects of the plateau uplift (Manabe and Broccoli, 1990;Kutzbach et al, 1993), especially the uplift of the northern Tibetan Plateau (Liu and Dong, 2013), as well as global cooling (Li et al, 2018a), and the feedback mechanisms associated with regional desertification (Liu et al, 2015b).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Continental drift, plateau uplift, and the evolutions of monsoon and arid regions in Asia, Africa, and Australia during the Cenozoic

Liu

Dong

Yin

et al. 2019

Sci. China Earth Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Monsoon and arid regions in the Asia-Africa-Australia (A-A-A) realm occupy more than 60% of the total area of these continents. Geological evidence showed that significant changes occurred to the A-A-A environments of the monsoon and arid regions, the land-ocean configuration in the Eastern Hemisphere, and the topography of the Tibetan Plateau in the Cenozoic. Motivated by this background, numerical experiments for 5 typical geological periods during the Cenozoic were conducted using a coupled ocean-atmosphere general circulation model to systemically explore the formations and evolutionary histories of the Cenozoic A-A-A monsoon and arid regions under the influences of continental drift and plateau uplift. Results of the numerical experiments indicate that the timings and causes of the formations of monsoon and arid regions in the A-A-A realm were very different. The northern and southern African monsoons existed during the mid-Paleocene, while the South Asian monsoon appeared in the Eocene after the Indian Subcontinent moved into the tropical Northern Hemisphere. In contrast, the East Asian monsoon and northern Australian monsoon were established much later in the Miocene. The establishment of the tropical monsoons in northern and southern Africa, South Asia, and Australia were determined by both the continental drift and seasonal migration of the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), while the position and height of the Tibetan Plateau were the key factor for the establishment of the East Asian monsoon. The presence of the subtropical arid regions in northern and southern Africa, Asia, and Australia depended on the positions of the continents and the control of the planetary scale subtropical high pressure zones, while the arid regions in the Arabian Peninsula and West Asia were closely related to the retreat of the Paratethys Sea. The formation of the mid-latitude arid region in the Asian interior, on the other hand, was the consequence of the uplift of the Tibetan Plateau. These results from this study provide insight to the important roles played by the earth's tectonic boundary conditions in the formations and evolutions of regional climates during geological times.

show abstract

“…Likewise, the arid climate in the north and west regions of East Asia showed multistage variation. Arid climate conditions may have initiated as early as the Eocene (Li et al, 2018;Licht et al, 2016), becoming more pronounced throughout the Oligocene (e.g., Dupont-Nivet et al, 2007;Sun & Windley, 2015;Xiao et al, 2010) and Miocene (e.g., Guo et al, 2002;Zheng et al, 2015). Thus, an establishment of a modern-like monsoon climate in East Asia includes at least two criteria: a nonzonal climate pattern and strengthened precipitation and wind seasonality in East China.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global Cooling Contributed to the Establishment of a Modern‐Like East Asian Monsoon Climate by the Early Miocene

Zhang

Jiang

2018

Geophysical Research Letters

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The establishment of a modern‐like monsoon climate in East Asia by the early Miocene was a complex process forced by several factors, and previous studies paid less attention to global cooling. Here we investigate this process using climate modeling by considering changes in topography and global cooling under the early Miocene boundary conditions. Using early Miocene paleogeography and an atmospheric CO2 concentration of 560 ppmv, our model results indicate that a nonzonal climate pattern has appeared in East China but that this climate exhibits weak precipitation and wind seasonality. Such seasonality strengthens as the concentration of atmospheric CO2 decreases from 560 to 420 ppmv and resembles the modern‐like condition after the growth of the Antarctic ice sheet. Although the development of East Asian topography can further strengthen this seasonality, our results indicate that global cooling is also pivotal for the establishment of a modern‐like monsoon climate in East Asia.

show abstract

Global cooling and enhanced Eocene Asian mid-latitude interior aridity

Cited by 54 publications

References 57 publications

Cenozoic evolution of the steppe-desert biome in Central Asia

Cenozoic evolution of the steppe-desert biome in Central Asia

Continental drift, plateau uplift, and the evolutions of monsoon and arid regions in Asia, Africa, and Australia during the Cenozoic

Global Cooling Contributed to the Establishment of a Modern‐Like East Asian Monsoon Climate by the Early Miocene

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About