Western Pacific hydroclimate linked to global climate variability over the past two millennia.
Interdecadal modes of tropical Pacific ocean-atmosphere circulation have a strong influence on global temperature, yet the extent to which these phenomena influence global climate on multicentury timescales is still poorly known. Here we present a 2,000-year, multiproxy reconstruction of western Pacific hydroclimate from two speleothem records for southeastern Indonesia. The composite record shows pronounced shifts in monsoon rainfall that are antiphased with precipitation records for East Asia and the central-eastern equatorial Pacific. These meridional and zonal patterns are best explained by a poleward expansion of the Australasian Intertropical Convergence Zone and weakening of the Pacific Walker circulation (PWC) between ∼1000 and 1500 CE Conversely, an equatorward contraction of the Intertropical Convergence Zone and strengthened PWC occurred between ∼1500 and 1900 CE. Our findings, together with climate model simulations, highlight the likelihood that century-scale variations in tropical Pacific climate modes can significantly modulate radiatively forced shifts in global temperature.
Department of Environmental Science, William Paterson University, Wayne, New Jersey 07470, USA.
Michael L
ML
Griffiths
Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 0200, Australia.
Alena K
AK
Kimbrough
Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 0200, Australia.
Michael K
MK
Gagan
School of Geography, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia.|EDYTEM, UMR CNRS 5204, Université de Savoie, 73376 Le Bourget du Lac, France.
Russell N
RN
Drysdale
Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA.|Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA.
Julia E
JE
Cole
Department of Earth System Science, University of California, Irvine, California 92697-3100, USA.
Kathleen R
KR
Johnson
School of Earth Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia.
Jian-Xin
JX
Zhao
NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York, New York 10025, USA.
Benjamin I
BI
Cook
School of Earth Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia.
John C
0000-0001-9427-3525
JC
Hellstrom
Research Center for Geotechnology, Indonesian Institute of Sciences, Bandung 40135, Indonesia.
Wahyoe S
WS
Hantoro