The influence of ice sheet and solar insolation on Holocene moisture evolution in northern Central Asia

Abstract

The arid region of Central Asia is one of the world's major sources of dust and exerts a significant influence on marine ecosystems, atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations, the global radiation budget, and thus global climate change. Recent global warming has considerably reduced mid-latitude net precipitation by decreasing the latitudinal temperature gradient between the Equator and the Arctic; however, the influence of ice sheet and solar insolation on moisture evolution in Central Asia during the Holocene remains uncertain. Here we show that the relative wet conditions during the early Holocene in northern Central Asia (NCA) were controlled principally by the southern position of the mid-latitude Westerlies under the negative phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), a pattern that was influenced by the substantial remnants of the Laurentide and Fennoscandian ice sheets. Subsequent northward migration of the mid-latitude Westerlies under a positive NAO phase resulted in persistent drought conditions during the middle Holocene thermal maximum, due to the combined effects of relatively higher summer insolation and Arctic amplification as well as sea ice loss. In contrast, southward migration of the mid-latitude Westerlies since approximately 3.6 cal kyr BP, driven by declining summer insolation and coincident with the negative NAO phase, increased regional precipitation towards to persistent relatively wet conditions in Central Asia. This reconstructed pattern of Holocene moisture availability contrasts markedly with the increase in precipitation over Central Asia under the current anthropogenically forced warming, thereby justifying further investigation into the multiple forcing mechanisms driving natural and anthropogenic climate change.