June insolation gradient and ice sheet forcing on Qaidam precipitation during the middle Piacenzian warm period

Abstract

Whether the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) migrated westward into the Asian interior during past warm periods is still unclear but is important for predicting precipitation variability in the Asian interior under future warming. Recent precipitation records from the Qaidam Basin in the Asian interior suggest that the EASM further migrated westward into the western Qaidam Basin during the middle Piacenzian warm period (mPWP: 3.264–3.025 Ma), indicating that precipitation in this ecologically fragile region was greater than it is currently. However, these precipitation records reveal weak sensitivity to insolation forcing, which is inconsistent with records from monsoon-influenced regions, hindering our understanding of orbital timescale precipitation variations in the Qaidam Basin during this Pliocene warmth. In this study, we report high-resolution (~3 kyr) magnetic parameter-based records and medium grain size records from the GS section of the western Qaidam Basin during 3.25–2.95 Ma. We interpret magnetic parameters and grain size as precipitation proxies based on their sensitivity to precipitation variations. Our precipitation records suggest that the EASM precipitation was likely the precipitation source for the Qaidam Basin during the mPWP. At the orbital timescale, precipitation records reveal dominant 20-kyr precessional cycles, consistent with records from the Chinese Loess Plateau and the South China Sea, suggesting that the June insolation gradient controlled precipitation variations in the Qaidam Basin during the mPWP. At the 40-kyr band, precipitation records show in-phase relationships with ice sheets, and we infer that Antarctic ice sheet forcing seems to also influence Qaidam precipitation via atmospheric or marine processes. These results provide the first evidence demonstrating that Qaidam precipitation was extremely sensitive to the June insolation gradient and ice sheets during the mPWP, improving our understanding of orbital timescale precipitation variations in the Asian interior during past warm periods.