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Recent research has shown the potential of speleothem δ13C to record a range of environmental processes. Here, we report on 230Th-dated stalagmite δ13C records for southwest Sulawesi, Indonesia, over the last 40,000 yr to investigate the relationship between tropical vegetation productivity and atmospheric methane concentrations. We demonstrate that the Sulawesi stalagmite δ13C record is driven by changes in vegetation productivity and soil respiration and explore the link between soil respiration and tropical methane emissions using HadCM3 and the Sheffield Dynamic Global Vegetation Model. The model indicates that changes in soil respiration are primarily driven by changes in temperature and CO2, in line with our interpretation of stalagmite δ13C. In turn, modelled methane emissions are driven by soil respiration, providing a mechanism that links methane to stalagmite δ13C. This relationship is particularly strong during the last glaciation, indicating a key role for the tropics in controlling atmospheric methane when emissions from high-latitude boreal wetlands were suppressed. With further investigation, the link between δ13C in stalagmites and tropical methane could provide a low-latitude proxy complementary to polar ice core records to improve our understanding of the glacial–interglacial methane budget. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The penultimate deglaciation was characterized by a sub-millennial-scale warm event in the Heinrich Stadial 11(HS11), termed the 134-ka event. However, its precise timing and structure remain poorly constrained due to the lack of high-resolution and precisely dated records. We present an oxygen isotope record of a speleothem with well-developed annual lamina from Zhangjia Cave, located on the north margin of the Sichuan Basin, characterizing Asian summer monsoon (ASM) changes in the 134-ka event, which included an increase excursion of ca. 149 years and decrease excursion of ca. 200 years, inferred from 3.3‰ δ18O variations. This event also divided the weak ASM interval-II (WMI-II), corresponding to HS11, into two stages, the WMI-IIa 132.8–134.1 ka and WMI-IIb 134.4–136.4 ka. With a comparable climatic pattern globally, the 134-ka event is essentially similar to the millennial-scale events in last glacial–deglacial period. Particularly, the observed weak-strong-weak ASM sequence (138.8–132.8 ka) is largely controlled by changes in the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) forced by the meltwater of northern high-latitude ice sheets. Moreover, our results underpin that AMOC, rather than the global ice volume, is more critical to ASM variations during the last two deglaciations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New stalagmites from Qadisha Cave (Lebanon) located at 1720 m above sea level provide a high-resolution and well-dated record for northern Mount Lebanon. The stalagmites grew discontinuously from 9.2 to 5.7 and at 3.5 ka, and they show a tendency to move from a more negative oxygen isotope signal at ~9.1 ka to a more positive signal at ~5.8 ka. Such a trend reflects a change from a wetter to a drier climate at high altitudes. The δ13C signal shows rapid shifts throughout the record and a decreasing trend toward more negative values in the mid-Holocene, suggesting enhanced soil activity. In the short-term trend, Qadisha stalagmites record rapid dry/wet changes on centennial scales, with a tendency to more rapid dry events toward the mid-Holocene. Such changes are characterized by overall good agreement between both geochemical proxies and stalagmite growth and might be affected by the seasonal variations in snow cover. The Qadisha record is in good agreement with other Levantine records, showing more humid conditions from 9 to 7 ka. After 7 ka, a drier climate seems to affect sites at both low- and high-altitude areas. The Qadisha record reflects uniquely mountainous climate characteristics compared with other records, specifically the effect of snow cover and its duration regulating the effective infiltration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Stalagmite J1 from Jintanwan Cave, Hunan, China, provides a precisely dated, decadally resolved δ18O proxy record of paleoclimatic changes associated with the East Asian monsoon from ∼29.5 to 14.7 ka and from ∼12.9 to 11.0 ka. At the time of the last glacial maximum (LGM), the East Asian summer monsoon weakened and then strengthened in response to changes in Northern Hemisphere insolation. As the ice sheets retreated the East Asian summer monsoon weakened, especially during Heinrich event H1, when atmospheric and oceanic teleconnections transferred the climatic changes around the North Atlantic to the monsoonal regions of Eastern Asia. A depositional hiatus between ∼14.7 and 12.9 ka leaves the deglacial record incomplete, but an abrupt shift in δ18O values at ∼11.5 ka marks the end of the Younger Dryas and the transition into the Holocene. Comparisons of the J1 record to other Chinese speleothem records indicate synchronous climatic changes throughout monsoonal China. Further comparisons to a speleothem record from western Asia (Socotra Island) and to Greenland ice cores support hemispherical-scale paleoclimatic change. Spectral and wavelet analyses reveal centennial- and decadal-scale periodicities that correspond to solar frequencies and to oscillations in atmospheric and oceanic circulation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]