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Influence of Atlantic meridional overturning circulation on the East Asian winter monsoon

Nature Geoscience volume 5, pages 46–49 (2012)Cite this article

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Abstract

The last glacial period was characterized by abrupt, millennial-scale climate change. These climate fluctuations are particularly pronounced in records of the East Asian monsoon system1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8, and seem to be linked to changes in North Atlantic circulation. Here we present records of grain size variations from the northwestern Chinese Loess Plateau, dated using optically stimulated luminescence. We reconstruct changes in the strength of the East Asian winter monsoon over the past 60,000 years and find reconstructed millennial-scale variations that are broadly correlated with temperature variations over Greenland, suggesting a common forcing. We investigate the effect of a slow-down of Atlantic meridional overturning circulation on the monsoon system using a coupled climate model simulation with added freshwater flux into the northern North Atlantic, and find a strengthening winter monsoon circulation over the regions that supply dust to the Loess Plateau and a reduction in summer monsoon precipitation over East Asia. We conclude that Atlantic meridional overturning circulation is a driver of abrupt change in the East Asian winter and summer monsoon systems, and that the northern westerlies play a role in transmitting this signal from the North Atlantic to the Asian monsoon regions.

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Figure 1: Site location and atmospheric circulation.
Figure 2: Monsoonal and North Atlantic climate records.
Figure 3: CCSM3 simulated surface wind stress and precipitation anomalies between the water-hosing experiment and the glacial control simulation.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Q. S. Liu, J. Bloemendal, J. Vandenberghe, D. Oppo, A. Wintle and S. G. Kang for discussions and suggestions. CCSM3 experiments completed by the National Center for Atmospheric Research and available on the Earth System Grid (www.earthsystemgrid.org). This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (No. 2010CB833403) and the ‘One-hundred Talents’ program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi’an 710075, China

    Youbin Sun, Xulong Wang & Zhisheng An

  2. Department of Geology, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island 02912-1846, USA

    Steven C. Clemens

  3. Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), University of Colorado at Boulder, and NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center, Boulder, Colorado 80305-3328, USA

    Carrie Morrill

  4. Physical Oceanography Laboratory, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266100, China

    Xiaopei Lin

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  1. Youbin Sun
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  4. Xiaopei Lin
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  5. Xulong Wang
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Contributions

Y.S. designed the study, performed the fieldwork and grain size analysis, and led the writing of the paper. S.C. contributed to data analysis, interpretation and paper writing. Both C.M. and X.L. analysed the water-hosing experiments. X.W. conducted the OSL dating. All authors contributed to discussion, interpretation of the results and writing of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Youbin Sun.

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Sun, Y., Clemens, S., Morrill, C. et al. Influence of Atlantic meridional overturning circulation on the East Asian winter monsoon. Nature Geosci 5, 46–49 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1326

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