Orbital Controls on North Pacific Dust Flux During the Late Quaternary

Summary, in English

Airborne mineral dust is sensitive to climatic changes, but its response to orbital forcing is still not fully understood. Here, we present a reconstruction of dust input to the Subarctic Pacific Ocean covering the past 190 kyr. The dust composition record is indicative of source moisture conditions, which were dominated by precessional variations. In contrast, the dust flux record is dominated by obliquity variations and displays an out-of-phase relationship with a dust record from the mid-latitude North Pacific Ocean. Climate model simulations suggest precession likely drove changes in the aridity and extent of dust source regions. Additionally, the obliquity variations in dust flux can be explained by meridional shifts in the North Pacific westerly jet, driven by changes in the meridional atmospheric temperature gradient. Overall, our findings suggest that North Pacific dust input was primarily modulated by orbital-controlled source aridity and the strength and position of the westerly winds.

• Author: Yi Zhong; Yanguang Liu; Hu Yang; Qiuzhen Yin; David J. Wilson; Zhengyao Lu; Samuel L. Jaccard; Torben Struve; Peter D. Clift; Stefanie Kaboth-Bahr; Juan C. Larrasoaña; André Bahr; Xun Gong; Debo Zhao; Yanan Zhang; Wenyue Xia; Qingsong Liu
• Department/s: Dept of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science; MERGE: ModElling the Regional and Global Earth system; BECC: Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate
• Publishing year: 2024-02
• Language: English
• Publication/Series: Geophysical Research Letters
• Volume: 51
• Issue: 4
• Links: http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2023GL106631
• Document type: Journal article
• Publisher: American Geophysical Union (AGU)
• Topic: Climate Research
• Status: Published
• ISBN/ISSN/Other: ISSN: 0094-8276