Heterogeneity in ice sheets- vs. monsoon rainfall-induced silicate weathering from high to low latitudes
One of the most challenging problems in paleoclimate research is how orbital cyclicities forced Earth’s climate variations during the late Quaternary. To address this issue, we investigated the differences in silicate weathering, a sensitive climate indicator, at different latitudes on orbital timescales by examining geochemical and clay mineral data from the mid-latitude Sea of Okhotsk and integrating published weathering records from low to high latitudes. Results show that silicate weathering in the mid-latitude Sea of Okhotsk responded sensitively to both temperature and rainfall, indicating the combined influence of ice sheets and low-latitude monsoons. However, silicate weathering is more sensitive to temperature in high-latitude regions, and to rainfall in tropical areas. Therefore, ice sheets primarily control silicate weathering at high latitudes, whereas monsoon rainfall has greater influences in tropical areas. These findings seem to support the “Milankovitch–Kutzbach” hypothesis, which proposes that ice sheets and monsoons together control orbital-scale climate variations of Earth.
Authors
- Zhengquan Yao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9185-2385)
- Xuefa Shi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8204-8021)
- Zhengyao Lu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5911-7110)
- Yi Zhong (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4652-7241)
- Hai Cheng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5305-9458)
- Kunshan Wang
- Debo Zhao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4406-8985)
- Zhaojie Yu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4135-9418)
- Han Feng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8178-9477)
- Jianjun Zou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0690-0224)
- Jiang Dong (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2767-3331)
- Zhili Dong (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8116-6747)
- Xuguang Feng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4155-841X)
- Hanying Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7915-9828)
Institutions
- Lund University (SE)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Ministry of Natural Resources (CN)
- Southern University of Science and Technology (CN)
- Institute of Oceanology (CN)
- Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology (CN)
- First Institute of Oceanography (CN)
- Mineral Resources (AU)
- Xi'an Jiaotong University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- npj Climate and Atmospheric Science
- Published
- 2025-05-23
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41612-025-01079-9
- Primary Topic
- Geology and Paleoclimatology Research
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province
- Basic Scientific Fund for National Public Research Institutes of China
- National Natural Science Foundation of China-Shandong Joint Fund
- National Key Research and Development Program of China