ALBERT

Beschreibung: Loess sequences are a particular record of paleoenvironments and paleoclimates and show regional peculiarities. Among those, European loess sequences show the occurrence of paleosols and other pedogenic units that have been demonstrated to correspond to the Greenland Interstadials (GIS) or Dansgaard-Oeschger events (DO), for the last climate cycle (Moine et al. 2017), of GIS-like for the penultimate climate cycle (Rousseau et al. 2020). During the last climate cycle, these paleosols developed synchronously over Europe along a wide longitude transect eastward in Ukraine (Rousseau et al., 2017). More interesting the development of these paleosols or pedogenic units, occurred during a stop of the dust deposition from the top of the most recently deposited eolian unit. Taking into consideration this point in our manuscript, we revisited the stratigraphy of the European loess sequences by considering the paleodust units, equivalent to Greenland Stadials (GS), as associating the lower loess unit and the overlying paleosol or pedogenic unit. Moreover, the close correlation that we established between the paleosols or pedogenic units with GIs, allows us to consider that the paleosol development occurred during the related GI in Greenland (Rousseau et al., 2017). Having the GI durations published by Rasmussen et al (2014), we propose therefore new timescales for the European loess sequences. Moreover, we have assigned the paleosol-loess units doublets to the corresponding Bond cycles defined by Broecker (1994). These cycles group several DO events, of increasing cold amplitude, and end with a Heinrich event that some literature interpreted as the coldest and dustiest time interval over Europe, an interpretation that we are testing in our paper. In our manuscript, we demonstrate our new method by applying it to the reference sequence of Nussloch that we have investigated for decades. We present a revised detailed record of sedimentation and mass accumulation rates over the 60 ka to 15 ka b2k time interval (TAB. 1). We also apply our method to other key European sequences that we investigated previously at high resolution, allowing us to propose new estimates for the SR and MARs of the most recent Bond cycles, i.e. e. between GI4 and GS3 (29 to 23.2ka b2k) and between GI8 and GS5 (38.2 to 29ka b2k) (TAB. 2). We conclude the LGM as the dustiest interval with the highest values, and presenting a longitudinal pattern along the studied European transect, with the highest values westward. Another finding is that for every Bond cycle, the dustiest interval always happened in the GS prior the last ones corresponding to Heinrich stadials. Expanding the comparison with high-resolution sequences from the Chinese loess plateau (TAB. 3) for the same Bond cycles, our study shows that Europe was dustier than China. A final test of our new method is by considering the SR and MARs for the various grain size categories measured in three key reference sequences. Considering the finest grain size category, which can be assimilated as the closest the mineral aerosols, our estimates fit the dust deposition reconstructed for the LGM in Europe by Earth System models opening new perspectives for future data-model comparisons (TAB. 4).

Beschreibung: Detailed deglacial and Holocene records of planktonic d18O and Mg/Ca-based sea surface temperature (SST) from the Okinawa Trough suggest that at ~18 to 17 thousand years before present (kyr B.P.), late spring/early summer SSTs were approximately 3°C cooler than today, while surface waters were up to 1 practical salinity unit saltier. These conditions are consistent with a weaker influence of the summer East Asian Monsoon (EAM) than today. The timing of suborbital SST oscillations suggests a close link with abrupt changes in the EAM and North Atlantic climate. A tropical influence, however, may have resulted in subtle decoupling between the North Atlantic and the Okinawa Trough/EAM during the deglaciation. Okinawa Trough surface water trends in the Holocene are consistent with model simulations of an inland shift of intense EAM precipitation during the middle Holocene. Millennial-scale alternations between relatively warm, salty conditions and relatively cold, fresh conditions suggest varying influence of the Kuroshio during the Holocene.

Beschreibung: Our study focuses on European loess sequences, particularly the eolian intervals in between the observed pedogenic units. The classical concept of soil formation from parent material is reformulated to estimate of the duration and the associated sedimentation rate (SR) and mass accumulation rate (MAR) of these paleodust intervals. We show that the Greenland Stadial (GS) duration in European loess deposits includes the thickness of the overlying pedogenic unit, which in fact developed downward into the upper part of the eolian unit. The lower stratigraphical limit of the eolian unit overlying the pedogenic unit corresponds to the restart of the dust sedimentation of the younger GS. We illustrate this interpretation first by computing both SRs and MARs first for the Nussloch key sequence, the most complete European series. The correlation between Nussloch and other European loess sequences, located along a 1,800 km longitudinal transect, allows computation of SR and MAR for several identified GS events. Comparing GS from marine and ice core records, our study shows that the two last Bond cycles are preserved in every European eolian record. Bulk SR and MAR are estimated and compared for these two Bond cycles, showing the highest SRs and MARs in western Europe. These indices also indicate that the last stadials, embedding an Henrich event, were not the dustiest in every Bond cycle. Our estimated MAR also differ from previously published computations, which did not take into account the various pedogenic units present in the studied loess sequences. The bulk SR and MAR estimates computed for the two last Bond Cycles from Chinese sequences from the Loess Plateau indicate lower atmospheric dust than in Europe during the Last Glacial Maximum. SR and MAR estimates computed from the fine-grained material for European records fit with Earth System model reconstructions.

Beschreibung: Magnesium/calcium (Mg/Ca) ratios of foraminiferal shells from a sediment core from the northern South China Sea, a semi-enclosed basin in the western tropical Pacific, document variations in sea-surface temperature (SST) during the past 145 k.y. Glacial SSTs were 4°C colder than interglacial SSTs. During the last deglaciation, most of the warming was accomplished in a single abrupt step after continental ice-sheet decay had already begun, but warming and ice-sheet demise were nearly synchronous during the penultimate deglaciation. Abrupt SST changes of the past 15 k.y. were apparently synchronous with events in East Asian monsoon rainfall, suggesting that variations in monsoon winds and their influence on surface circulation of the western Pacific exerted a strong control on northern South China Sea SSTs. We suggest that this link persisted for the previous 130 k.y., during which time orbital-scale 2-3°C SST changes and several small (〈/=2°C) abrupt SST events occurred in the northern South China Sea. The similar timing of northern South China Sea SST, on a benthic d18O time scale, to a well-dated speleothem record from eastern China suggests that the demise of ice sheets associated with the penultimate deglaciation did not precede Northern Hemisphere summer insolation increase. Our results suggest that surface waters had higher d18O values during times of strong summer monsoon than during times of weak monsoon, likely reflecting a redistribution of 18O-depleted rainfall from land during times of strong summer monsoons, to the western Pacific during times of weaker summer monsoons.