Pleistocene terrestrial warming trend in East Asia linked to Antarctic ice sheets growth
How terrestrial mean annual temperature (MAT) evolved throughout the past 2 million years (Myr) remains elusive, limiting our understanding of the patterns, mechanisms, and impacts of past temperature changes. Here we report a ~2-Myr terrestrial MAT record based on fossil microbial lipids preserved in the Heqing paleolake, East Asia. The increased amplitude and periodicity shift of glacial-interglacial changes in our record align with those in sea surface temperature (SST) records. However, its long-term warming trend (1.0 °C/Myr, 95% CI = 0.4-1.7 °C/Myr) during 1.8-0.6 Myr ago diverges from the contemporaneous SST cooling. We propose that the Pleistocene warming in East Asia primarily resulted from regionally enhanced heat input and greenhouse effect of rising water vapor driven by Antarctic ice sheets (AIS) growth, highlighting the important climatic effect of AIS evolution. Such long-term warming across the Mid-Pleistocene Transition might have been beneficial for archaic humans' flourishing in Eurasia.
Authors
- Xiaolin Ma (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5073-418X)
- Hong Yan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1230-096X)
- Zeke Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5829-7175)
- Weiguo Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6324-4916)
- Yong Hu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0305-5616)
- Zhonghui Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2168-8305)
- Zhisheng An (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9538-9826)
- Huanye Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2149-3097)
- Hu Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7081-9618)
- Youbin Sun (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6696-6620)
- Fengyan Lu
- Jing Hu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2770-9397)
- Xinwen Xu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4826-8703)
- Zhangdong Jin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1457-0552)
- Weijian Zhou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9641-5734)
- Xiaoke Qiang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0014-2477)
- Hongxuan Lu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9775-4348)
- Jing Lei (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5838-5826)
- Zhengguo Shi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6656-5675)
- Hong Ao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3337-520X)
- Yunning Cao
Institutions
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Beijing Normal University (CN)
- Chang'an University (CN)
- Northwest University (CN)
- National Laboratory for Civil Engineering (PT)
- Shaanxi Institute of Zoology (CN)
- Institute of Earth Environment (CN)
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Xi'an Jiaotong University (CN)
- University of Hong Kong (HK)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2025-09-10
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-63331-3
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- Geology and Paleoclimatology Research
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 1.30
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Youth Innovation Promotion Association of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
- National Key Research and Development Program of China
- Youth Innovation Promotion Association