A high-resolution stalagmite record from Luoshui Cave, Central China over the past 23.5 kyr

A continuous high-resolution record from a precisely-dated stalagmite spanning the last precessional cycle provides new insight into the dynamics of climate change from orbital to centennial scales. A 600-mm length stalagmite (LS46) collected from the Luoshui Cave, Hubei Province, Central China, was well-dated (a total of 24 ²³⁰Th dates) and high-resolved sampled for oxygen and carbon stable isotopic measurements (2047 subsamples in total). The stalagmite LS46 δ¹⁸O is consistent with other published stalagmite δ¹⁸O time series in monsoonal China, and closely tracks changes in the Northern Hemisphere summer insolation (NHSI) on July 21^st throughout the past 23.5 kyr. Besides, the stalagmite LS46 δ¹⁸O shows significant correlations with the reconstructed Dali lake-level history and tree-ring δ¹⁸O records in the marginal monsoon regions. On this basis, we interpret that the stalagmite LS46 δ¹⁸O reflects the large-scale monsoon circulation with a superimposed local climate signal that might be related to effective humidity. Furthermore, the stalagmite LS46 δ¹⁸O exhibited four long-lasting extremely weak monsoon events since 7 kyr B.P. These four weak monsoon events corresponded well with the tree-ring record in the northwestern fringe of the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) region. Notably, the good correspondence between the stalagmite record and the tree-ring record also provides a good chronological support for our assessment of the climate and cultural evolution during the middle-late Holocene transition, the medieval warm period (MWP) and Little Ice Age (LIA). During the early-middle Holocene, the detrended δ¹⁸O profile revealed 10 multi-centennial monsoon cycles with a duration of nearly 500 yr and the amplitude of ∼0.8‰. The wavelet analysis further discloses that the EASM has nearly 500 yr and 200 yr periodic oscillations in the early-middle Holocene, research indicated that the solar activity and the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO)/North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) jointly drive the dominant nearly 500 yr cycle of the Asian monsoon.