Potential drivers of disparity in early Middle Pleistocene interglacial climate response over Eurasia

Abstract

Poor understanding of the differential evolution of interglacial climate over various regions in Eurasia greatly limits our ability to predict the specific local impacts of future climate change. Here we demonstrate starkly opposing trends in interglacial intensities in Asia and Europe over the early Middle Pleistocene and Mid-Brunhes Transitions based on the study of various climate proxies in the Paks loess record (Hungary), a key profile in the European Loess Belt. These contrasting climate trends imply major but unexplained differences in the regional response of Quaternary climate to shifts in forcing mechanisms during two major reorganizations of Earth's climate across Eurasia. Using new rock magnetic datasets from the Paks record we suggest that the changing dominance of Mediterranean, Atlantic (Westerlies) and continental air masses under the influence of the quasi permanent high pressure centres over the Fennoscandian ice sheet played a key role in the observed differences in the evolution of early Middle Pleistocene climate. We also propose that the intensification of the early Middle Pleistocene glaciation of Central Asian mountains may have strengthened and shifted the Siberian High westward on multi-millennial/orbital timescales, which in turn forced geographically contrasting expressions of the MIS 19 to 11 interglacials in Eurasia. This is the first coherent explanation for the geographically diverse response of regional climate to the early Middle Pleistocene climate transitions and points to the clear role of global cooling and expanded mid-latitude glaciers in driving these events. • Wind patterns and precipitation are reconstructed from a European key loess sequence. • Disparity in early Middle Pleistocene interglacial climate response over Eurasia is recognized. • Potential drivers of the disparity are proposed, and a conceptual climate model was built.