Holocene variations in Asian monsoon moisture: a bidecadal sediment record from the South China Sea

The East Asian monsoon system involves extensive transport of sensible/latent heat between land and sea and from low to high latitudes. Our high resolution, bidecadal marine records present a first detailed history of monsoon climate change over the Holocene. The high-amplitude perturbation in monsoon moisture centered at 8,150 years ago and the monsoon maximum in the Early Holocene show interhemispheric teleconnections to both a cool episode in Greenland and to the Indian monsoon monitored in the Arabian Sea. Periodicities of 84, 102 and, especially, near 775 years in monsoon variation suggest a climatic forcing both by long-term oscillations in thermohaline circulation and (possibly) solar activity cycles.