Major mid-late Holocene cooling in the East China Sea revealed by an alkenone sea surface temperature record

Although the mid-late Holocene cold and dry event about 4000 years ago (the 4 ka event) has been observed almost globally, it was most prominent in terrestrial climate proxies from the lower latitudes. Here we evaluate the oceanic response to this event in terms of a Holocene sea surface temperature (SST) record reconstructed using the U37K′ index for Core B3 on the continental shelf of the East China Sea. The record reveals a large temperature drop of about 5°C from the mid-Holocene (24.7°C at 5.6 ka) to the 4 ka event (19.2°C at 3.8 ka). This mid-late Holocene cooling period in Core B3 correlated with (i) decreases in the East Asia summer monsoon intensity and (ii) the transition period with increased El Niño/Southern Oscillation activities in the Equatorial Pacific. Our SST record provides oceanic evidence for a more global nature of the mid-late Holocene climate change, which was most likely caused by a southward migration of the Intertropical Converge Zone in response to the decreasing summer solar insolation in the Northern Hemisphere. However, the large SST drop around Core B3 indicates that the mid-late Holocene cooling was regionally amplified by the initiation/strengthening of eddy circulation/cold front which caused upwelling and resulted in additional SST decrease. Upwelling during the mid-late Holocene also enhanced with surface productivity in the East China Sea as reflected by higher alkenone content around Core B3.