Precession-induced millennial climate cycles in greenhouse Cretaceous
Millennial-scale climate cycles persist throughout greenhouse climates, yet the mechanisms remain unclear. Here, using proxy reconstructions, we present centennial-resolution geological records from early Campanian greenhouse deposits in both mid-latitude East Asia and low-latitude Southern Atlantic. These records document pronounced millennial ( ~ 1-6 kyr) wet-dry climate cycles. The amplitude modulation relationship between the most prominent ~4-5-kyr cycles (corresponding to the ¼ precession cycle) and eccentricity aligns perfectly with the theoretically calculated equatorial insolation cycles, demonstrating the climate effect of this predicted insolation forcing on global climate. Other millennial cycles primarily emerge from these ~4-5-kyr cycles via nonlinear amplitude modulation and combination tones. Proxy reconstructions and theoretical calculation thus converge to demonstrate that during this warm greenhouse period, precession can directly and indirectly stimulate millennial climate cycles. The deterministic link between astronomical parameters and millennial climate cycles implies that high-frequency climate oscillations may be predictable in future greenhouse-like climates, particularly under anthropogenic warming.
Authors
- Chengshan Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7403-0582)
- Anne‐Christine Da Silva (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4191-7600)
- Hai Cheng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5305-9458)
- Yongjian Huang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6628-0664)
- Hanfei Yang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2458-4544)
- Qiuzhen Yin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7189-8335)
- Eun Young Lee
- Chao Ma (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0122-5696)
- Tiantian Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2308-5989)
- Zhifeng Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7764-8740)
- André Berger
Institutions
- University of Vienna (AT)
- University of Liège (BE)
- Ministry of Natural Resources (CN)
- China University of Geosciences (Beijing) (CN)
- Chengdu University of Technology (CN)
- Guangzhou University (CN)
- State Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Reservoir Geology and Exploitation (CN)
- Xi'an Jiaotong University (CN)
- UCLouvain (BE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2025-11-27
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-66219-4
- Citations
- 2
- Primary Topic
- Geology and Paleoclimatology Research
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 2.60
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- China University of Geosciences, Beijing
- Fonds De La Recherche Scientifique - FNRS
- China Postdoctoral Science Foundation
- China University of Geosciences
- National Science and Technology Major Project
- National Key Research and Development Program of China
- Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities