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Chinese stalagmite δ18O controlled by changes in the Indian monsoon during a simulated Heinrich event

Nature Geoscience volume 4, pages 474–480 (2011)Cite this article

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Abstract

Carbonate cave deposits in India and China are assumed to record the intensity of monsoon precipitation, because the δ18O of the carbonate tracks the isotopic signature of precipitation. These records show spatially coherent variability throughout the last ice age and suggest that monsoon strength was altered during the millennial-scale climate variations known as Dansgaard–Oeschger events and during the Heinrich cooling events. Here we use a numerical climate model with an embedded oxygen-isotope model to assess what caused the shifts in the oxygen-isotope signature of precipitation during a climate perturbation designed to mimic a Heinrich event. Our simulations show that a sudden increase in North Atlantic sea-ice extent during the last glacial period leads to cooling in the Northern Hemisphere, reduced precipitation over the Indian basin and weakening of the Indian monsoon. The precipitation is isotopically heavier over India and the water vapour exported to China is isotopically enriched. Our model broadly reproduces the enrichment of δ18O over Northern India and East Asia evident in speleothem records during Heinrich events. We therefore conclude that changes in the δ18O of cave carbonates associated with Heinrich events reflect changes in the intensity of Indian rather than East Asian monsoon precipitation.

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Figure 1: Annual averaged temperature and precipitation difference between the H1 and LGM.
Figure 2: δ18Op and summer precipitation difference between the H1 and LGM simulations.
Figure 3: δ18Op and summer-precipitation difference between the H1 sensitivity experiments and LGM simulation.

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Acknowledgements

This work is part of the ARCTREC and DecCen projects, funded by the Norwegian Research Council. D.S.B. was supported by the NSF EAR program (0908558). The authors would like to thank D. Noone for providing the isotope module for CAM3 and J. Bader and M. d.S. Mesquita for discussions and suggestions. This is publication no A323 from the Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research.

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Author notes

  1. Francesco S. R. Pausata

    Present address: Present address: Joint Research Center, Institute for Environment and Sustainability, I-21027 Ispra (VA), Italy,

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, NO-5007 Bergen, Norway

    Francesco S. R. Pausata & Kerim H. Nisancioglu

  2. Geophysical Institute, University of Bergen, NO-5007 Bergen, Norway

    Francesco S. R. Pausata & David S. Battisti

  3. Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195-1640, USA

    David S. Battisti & Cecilia M. Bitz

  4. UNI Research, NO-5007 Bergen, Norway

    Kerim H. Nisancioglu

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  1. Francesco S. R. Pausata
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  3. Kerim H. Nisancioglu
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  4. Cecilia M. Bitz
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Contributions

F.S.R.P. and D.S.B. conceived the study, analysed the results and wrote the manuscript. F.S.R.P. designed and carried out the experiments, and processed the model results. K.H.N. analysed the results and edited the manuscript. C.M.B. wrote the tagging code in the isotope module and set up CAM3 to run in LGM with isotopes and tagging.

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Correspondence to Francesco S. R. Pausata.

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Pausata, F., Battisti, D., Nisancioglu, K. et al. Chinese stalagmite δ18O controlled by changes in the Indian monsoon during a simulated Heinrich event. Nature Geosci 4, 474–480 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1169

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