High regional climate sensitivity over continental China constrained by glacial-recent changes in temperature and the hydrological cycle

Abstract

The East Asian monsoon is one of Earth's most significant climatic phenomena, and numerous paleoclimate archives have revealed that it exhibits variations on orbital and suborbital time scales. Quantitative constraints on the climate changes associated with these past variations are limited, yet are needed to constrain sensitivity of the region to changes in greenhouse gas levels. Here, we show central China is a region that experienced a much larger temperature change since the Last Glacial Maximum than typically simulated by climate models. We applied clumped isotope thermometry to carbonates from the central Chinese Loess Plateau to reconstruct temperature and water isotope shifts from the Last Glacial Maximum to present. We find a summertime temperature change of 6-7°C that is reproduced by climate model simulations presented here. Proxy data reveal evidence for a shift to lighter isotopic composition of meteoric waters in glacial times, which is also captured by our model. Analysis of model outputs suggests that glacial cooling over continental China is significantly amplified by the influence of stationary waves, which, in turn, are enhanced by continental ice sheets. These results not only support high regional climate sensitivity in Central China but highlight the fundamental role of planetary-scale atmospheric dynamics in the sensitivity of regional climates to continental glaciation, changing greenhouse gas levels, and insolation.A wide range of archives, including speleothem, marine, lake, Himalayan glacier ice core, and loess sediment records, have shown that monsoons exhibit significant variations on orbital and suborbital time scales (e.g., refs. 1-11

Stable and clumped isotopes in shell carbonates of land snails Cathaica sp. and Bradybaena sp. in north China and implications for ecophysiological characteristics and paleoclimate studies

“…Similar to the previous studies [ Zaarur et al ., ; Eagle et al ., ], the absolute calcification temperatures in our snail shells are uniformly higher than the local ambient mean temperatures even for the warm months. This was not attributed to a kinetic isotope effect or “vital effect” on 13 C– 18 O bond in carbonate of land snail shells [ Zaarur et al ., ].…”

“…shells collected in north China were close to the average daily high temperature in summertime (JJA), Eagle et al . [] considered that the Cathaica sp. snails have a warm affinity for optimum growth.…”

“…The Δ 47 ‐actual temperature offset based on data provided by Eagle et al . [] is around 7.9 ± 1.5°C, consistent with our results within error range (Figure a). By contrast, the Δ 47 ‐actual temperature offset calculated using the data for snails in monsoon‐like regions from Zaarur et al .…”

“…By contrast, Eagle et al . [] argued that land snail calcification temperatures were correlated with environmental temperatures if they only adopted the data from the environments most similar to monsoonal China [ Eagle et al ., ]. In this context, the above conclusion deserves further examination for land snails of the same species from different locations in typical monsoonal climate regions.…”

Evolution of Neoproterozoic Wonoka–Shuram Anomaly-aged carbonates: Evidence from clumped isotope paleothermometry

“…Clumped isotope-derived temperatures can be combined with ␦ 18 O carb to uniquely determine ␦ 18 O w through application of an appropriate carbonate-water oxygen isotope fractionation factor (Kim and O'Neil, 1997;Vasconcelos et al, 2005). The tool has been used for a range of applications including the study of primary and diagenetic processes in terrestrial and marine samples of a wide range of ages (Came et al, 2007;Affek et al, 2008;Dennis and Schrag, 2010;Eagle et al, 2010Eagle et al, , 2011Eagle et al, , 2013Passey et al, 2010;Tripati et al, 2010Tripati et al, , 2014Bristow et al, 2011;Ferry et al, 2011;Finnegan et al, 2011;Huntington et al, 2011;Keating-Bitonti et al, 2011;Loyd et al, 2012aLoyd et al, , 2013aLoyd et al, , 2014Passey and Henkes, 2012;Swanson et al, 2012;Dale et al, 2014).…”