Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: Deciphering past climate variability in the Western Pacific Warm Pool (WPWP), the Earth’s largest heat and moisture centre, is vital for understanding the global climate system. Nevertheless, its long-term evolution remains controversial, largely due to ambiguities in existing proxy interpretations and discrepancies between records. Here, we present a weathering and erosion reconstruction from the WPWP spanning the last 140,000 years, based on the mineralogy and geochemistry of a sediment core from offshore of northern New Guinea. The paleo-weathering reconstruction is consistent with the simulated precipitation evolution on nearby islands, thereby suggesting a close coupling between climate variability and island weathering in a tropical setting. In addition, our combined data-model interpretation of WPWP climate history shows many similarities to the East Asian Summer Monsoon (EASM) variability over orbital timescales. Overall, our study highlights the critical role of precession-paced interhemispheric energy redistribution, via the West Pacific meridional sea-surface pressure gradient, in linking orbital-scale WPWP climate and EASM variability.
Institutions: Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Oceanology, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Institute for Basic Science, IBS Center for Climate Physics, Pusan National University, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université Paris-Saclay, Geosciences Paris-Saclay, University College London, Birkbeck, University of London, Tongji University, State Key Laboratory of Marine Geology, University of Colorado Boulder, Peking University, Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives
Language: English
Subfield: Atmospheric Science
Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDG: Climate action
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,390
Funders: Sight Research UK, National Natural Science Foundation of China, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Youth Innovation Promotion Association of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province, Institute for Basic Science, Natural Environment Research Council, National Key Research and Development Program of China, Youth Innovation Promotion Association
OpenAlex ID: W4394909782