Onset and evolution of millennial-scale variability in the Asian monsoon and its impact on paleoceanography of the Japan Sea

Recent advances in paleoceanographic/paleoclimatic studies of the Japan Sea and terrestrial China confirm the close association between millennial-scale variability of the Asian monsoon and the Dansgaard-Oeschger Cycles (DOC) of the North Atlantic. However, neither their teleconnection mechanism nor the ultimate driving force is well understood. Oceanography of the Japan Sea is strongly influenced by the nature of the influx from the East China Sea, which is highly sensitive to the East Asian summer monsoon. The sea also received significant eolian flux from Asia that is controlled by the interplay between the winter monsoon and the westerly jet. Grain size and provenance studies of the eolian dust in loess-paleosol sequences in East Asia and in the Japan Sea suggest that oscillations in westerly jet meandering pattern could be responsible for the teleconnection. In order to confirm the teleconnection mechanism, it is critical to reconstruct the nature and spatial patterns of millennial-scale variability of the Asian monsoon. I also examine the relationship between the evolution of millennial-scale variability in the Asian monsoon and the surface uplift history of the Himalayas and Tibetan Plateau, which has been commonly linked to monsoon intensity by climate modeling. In this respect, the Japan Sea is an excellent recorder of the orbital- to suborbital-scale variability of the East Asian monsoon over the last 3.5 m.y.