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Seawater Temperature Seasonality in the South China Sea During the Late Holocene Derived From High-Resolution Sr/Ca Ratios of Tridacna Gigas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Hong Yan ,
Liguang Sun ,
Da Shao  and
Yuhong Wang
Hong Yan*
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an, 710075, China Institute of Polar Environment, School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China
Liguang Sun
Affiliation:
Institute of Polar Environment, School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China
Da Shao
Affiliation:
Institute of Polar Environment, School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China
Yuhong Wang
Affiliation:
Department of Chemistry and Laser Chemistry Institute, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China
*
*Corresponding author at: State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an, 710075, China., E-mail address:yanhong@ieecas.cn (H. Yan).
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Abstract

Temperature seasonality, the difference between summer and winter temperature, has significant influences on global terrestrial and marine ecosystems. However, most of proxy-based climate records are of limited temporal resolution and thus insufficient to quantify the past temperature seasonality. In this study, high-resolution Sr/Ca ratios of modern (live-caught) and fossil (dead-collected) Tridacna gigas shells from the South China Sea (SCS) were used to reconstruct the seawater temperature seasonality during the late Holocene. The averaged seawater temperature seasonality around 2165 ± 75 BC (4.46 ± 1.41°C, derived from the data of 18 yr) were similar to the seasonality of recent decade (4.41 ± 0.82°C during AD 1994–2005), but the temperature seasonality around AD 50 ± 40 (3.69 ± 1.37°C, derived from the data of 48 yr) and AD 990 ± 40 (3.64 ± 0.87°C, derived from the data of 11 yr) was significantly lower than that during AD 1994–2005. The reduced seasonality around AD 990 ± 40 was attributable to the unusually warm winter during the medieval times, probably caused by the weakening of East Asian Winter Monsoon. Our study highlighted the potential of T. gigas shells in providing high-resolution seasonality climate information during the late Holocene.

Keywords

South China SeaTridacna gigasSr/CaTemperature seasonalityLate Holocene
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 83 , Issue 2 , March 2015 , pp. 298 - 306
Copyright
University of Washington

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