Asian summer monsoon variability across Termination II and implications for ice age terminations
The detailed anatomy of Termination I (TI) is well depicted, but whether changes across Termination II (TII) resemble TI remains controversial. Here we present high-resolution Asian monsoon records covering TII using Shima Cave stalagmites from China. Correlating marine and ice-core records to our U/Th-dated records via millennial-scale variabilities, we find an initial CO<sub>2</sub> rise from 139 ± 1 ka BP concordant with boreal summer insolation increase, which was followed by a major rise phase of CO<sub>2</sub> between 135.7 ± 1 and 129 ± 1 ka BP. The major rise phases of CO<sub>2</sub> were comparable during TI and TII, but the initial CO<sub>2</sub> rise before TII was distinct from CO<sub>2</sub> behavior before TI, likely forced by the Earth's internal variabilities, in particular an ice-sheet collapse event and a 50% reduction in southern hemisphere dust flux. Here, we show that ~4000-5000-year-long gradual changes in CO<sub>2</sub>, along with insolation rise, preconditioned glacial terminations, supporting the "tipping point" theory.
Authors
- Zhenqiu Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5271-6938)
- Hai Cheng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5305-9458)
- Qingfeng Shao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2710-9511)
- Yijia Liang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4429-8542)
- Kan Zhao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8662-9739)
- Tyler E. Huth (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-7009)
- Rob Edwards
- Quan Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7813-0863)
- Yongjin Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6021-2724)
- Shitao Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2108-3357)
- Bin Zhao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2544-5263)
Institutions
- University of Minnesota (US)
- Nantong University (CN)
- Washington University in St. Louis (US)
- University of Michigan (US)
- Jiangsu Center for Collaborative Innovation in Geographical Information Resource Development and Application (CN)
- Ningbo Polytechnic (CN)
- Xi'an Jiaotong University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2025-05-30
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-60398-w
- Citations
- 2
- Primary Topic
- Geology and Paleoclimatology Research
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 2.60
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Jiangxi Normal University
- Anhui Normal University