Humidification of Central Asia and equatorward shifts of westerly winds since the late Pliocene

Zhong，Yi1; Shi，Xuefa2; Yang，Hu3,4; Wilson，David J.5; Hein，James R.6; Kaboth-Bahr，Stefanie7; Lu，Zhengyao8; Clift，Peter D.9; Yan，Qing10; Lohmann，Gerrit3; Liu，Jiabo1,11; González，Francisco Javier12; Jiang，Xiaodong1; Jiang，Zhaoxia13; Liu，Qingsong1,14,15

2022-12-01

10.1038/s43247-022-00604-5

Communications Earth and Environment   Impact Factor & Quartile

2662-4435

The production, transport, and deposition of mineral dust exert major influences on climate change and Earth’s biogeochemical cycles. Furthermore, their imprint, as recorded in pelagic sediments, provides an avenue for determining past changes in terrestrial aridity and atmospheric circulation patterns in response to global climate change. Here, by examining geochemical and magnetic data obtained from a ferromanganese crust in the western Pacific Ocean, we investigate the eolian dust source-region conditions and dust transport mechanisms from the Asian interior to the Pacific Ocean since the Pliocene. We identify a gradual provenance change in the dust source regions, from a dominant Gobi Desert source during the early Pliocene to a mixed Gobi-Taklimakan Desert source during the late Pliocene and Pleistocene, alongside increasing chemical weathering in those source areas. Climate model simulations suggest that these changes were related to an equatorward shift of the westerly jet and humidification of Central Asia during the gradual transition from a warm Pliocene climate to the cool Pleistocene.

SCI

English

First ; Corresponding

National Outstanding Youth Science Fund Project of National Natural Science Foundation of China[42274094];

WOS:000881681300001

2-s2.0-85141801713

Scopus

1.Centre for Marine Magnetism (CM2) Department of Ocean Science and Engineering,Southern University of Science and Technology,Shenzhen,518055,China
2.Key Laboratory of Marine Sedimentology and Metallogeny,First Institute of Oceanography,Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR),Qingdao,266061,China
3.Alfred Wegener Institute,Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research,Bremerhaven,Germany
4.Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory,Zhuhai,China
5.Institute of Earth and Planetary Sciences,University College London and Birkbeck,University of London,London,United Kingdom
6.U.S. Geological Survey Retired,PCMSC,Santa Cruz,2885 Mission Street,95060,United States
7.Institute of Geosciences,University of Potsdam,Potsdam-Golm,Germany
8.Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science,Lund University,Lund,Sweden
9.Department of Geology and Geophysics,Louisiana State University,Baton Rouge,United States
10.Nansen-Zhu International Research Centre,Institute of Atmospheric Physics,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing,100029,China
11.Paleomanetism and Planetary Magnetism Laboratory,School of Geophysics and Geomatics,China University of Geosciences,Wuhan,430074,China
12.Marine Geology Division,Geological Survey of Spain (IGME),Madrid,28003,Spain
13.College of Marine Geosciences,Ocean University of China,Qingdao,266100,China
14.Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Guangzhou),Guangzhou,China
15.Shanghai Sheshan National Geophysical Observatory,Shanghai,201602,China

Zhong，Yi,Shi，Xuefa,Yang，Hu,et al. Humidification of Central Asia and equatorward shifts of westerly winds since the late Pliocene[J]. Communications Earth and Environment,2022,3(1).

Zhong，Yi.,Shi，Xuefa.,Yang，Hu.,Wilson，David J..,Hein，James R..,...&Liu，Qingsong.(2022).Humidification of Central Asia and equatorward shifts of westerly winds since the late Pliocene.Communications Earth and Environment,3(1).

Zhong，Yi,et al."Humidification of Central Asia and equatorward shifts of westerly winds since the late Pliocene".Communications Earth and Environment 3.1(2022).