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Intensified mid-Holocene Asian monsoon recorded in corals from Kikai Island, subtropical northwestern Pacific

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Maki Morimoto ,
Hajime Kayanne ,
Osamu Abe  and
Malcolm T. McCulloch
Maki Morimoto*
Affiliation:
Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Nagoya University, Nagoya 464-8601, Japan
Hajime Kayanne
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan
Osamu Abe
Affiliation:
Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Nagoya University, Nagoya 464-8601, Japan
Malcolm T. McCulloch
Affiliation:
Research School of Earth Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia
*
⁎Corresponding author. Fax: +81 52 788 6206. E-mail address:maki.morimoto@nagoya-u.jp (M. Morimoto).
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Abstract

Coupled records of Sr/Ca and oxygen isotope ratios (δ18O) of coral skeletons have been used to produce quantitative estimates of paleo-sea surface temperature (SST) and δ18O of surface seawater that can in some cases be converted to sea surface salinity (SSS). Two fossil corals from Kikai Island in the subtropical northwestern Pacific, a location affected by East Asian summer and winter monsoons, were analyzed to investigate differences between mid-Holocene and present-day SST and SSS. At 6180 cal yr BP, SSTs were roughly the same as today, both in summer and winter; δ18Oseawater and SSS values were higher both in summer (+ 0.5‰, +1.1 psu) and in winter (+ 0.2‰, + 0.6 psu) than modern values. At 7010 cal yr BP, SSTs were slightly cooler both in summer and winter (−0.8 and −0.6 °C), whereas δ18Oseawater and SSS had higher values in summer (+ 0.3‰, + 0.6 psu) and in winter (+ 0.8‰, + 1.9 psu) than present-day values. These results are consistent with other marine records for the mid-Holocene of the low and midlatitudes in the northwestern Pacific. Such regional conditions indicate that the East Asian summer and winter monsoons were more intense in the mid-Holocene, which was likely a function of the mid-Holocene insolation regime.

Keywords

Mid-HoloceneEast Asian monsoonSubtropical northwestern PacificSea surface temperatureSea surface salinityCoral skeletonSr/Ca ratioOxygen isotope ratio
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 67 , Issue 2 , March 2007 , pp. 204 - 214
Copyright
University of Washington

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