Glacial termination hydroclimate in the Indo-Pacific Warm Pool

Abstract:

Hydroclimatic change in the Indo-Pacific Warm Pool (IPWP), the largest center of atmospheric deep convection on Earth, can have a profound influence on the global moisture and energy budgets. Although it has been extensively studied, the history of IPWP hydroclimate remains elusive, partially due to the scarcity of well-resolved hydroclimiate records from the region.

Here we report a U/Th dated, high-resolution, calcite d18O record on IPWP hydroclimatic change, spanning the last glacial termination (termination-I or T-I) and the interval of time from the Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 12 to MIS11 (termination-V or T-V). The record was obtained using speleothems collected from Southwest Sulawesi (S5o1’, E119o44’), Indonesia. During T-I, the Sulawesi speleothem δ¹⁸O shows a few millennial-scale events, possibly a drier climate during the Younger Dryas (YD) and Heinrich Stadial 1 (HS1), but a relatively wet climate during the last glacial maximum (LGM) and the Bolling-Allerod (B-A). The pattern resembles those registered in the speleothem records from eastern China and Borneo. However, the Sulawesi d18O varies from ~ -5.8‰ to ~ -7.3‰ during the last termination, which is much smaller than the magnitudes shown in China and Borneo cave samples (~ 4‰). On the other hand, the Sulawesi cave record is anti-correlated with the Flores speleothem record in terms of their millennial-scale events. Yet, the two Indonesian records share a similar, small d18O variation (~1.5‰). Such observations therefore suggest that the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) probably became narrower when responding to the northern high-latitude climatic forcing during the T-I, and it centered zonally between the two Indonesian locations.

Interestingly, Sulawesi speleothem d18O has a larger magnitude of shift during T-V, from ~ -5.7‰ in MIS12 to ~ -8.7‰ at the peak of MIS11. Given that Sulawesi cave d18O is not sensitive to sea level change and orbital forcing, we suspect that a much lower d18O observed in MIS11 could be attributed to a higher temperature in the IPWP accompanying with a regional higher rainfall.