Collaborative Research: P2C2--Cave Climate Histories of East/Central Asia: Deeper in Time, Wider Geographically, New Analytical Approaches, and New Tests of Climate Interpretations

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The project builds upon the researchers' previous research piecing together a 640,000-year long, high-resolution record of the oxygen isotopic composition of cave calcite from the region of China currently affected by Asian monsoon rainfall. The researchers aim to examine how the oxygen isotopic composition of cave calcite relates to climate using a series of tests. These analytical tests involve (1) obtaining records from different regions of Asia, (2) obtaining extremely high resolution seasonal records of oxygen isotopic composition over specific transitions in climate, and (3) measuring the Oxygen-17 anomalies in selected cave deposits. The proposed tests of the mechanisms whereby the oxygen isotopic composition of cave calcite responds to climate aim to help illuminate the fundamental processes that cause changes in the Asian Monsoon. This research is important because the Asian Monsoon affects millions of people and responds to regional insolation changes at orbital timescales and North Atlantic climate at millennial timescales. The project will allow the researchers to use the monsoon records as a window into high latitude climate. The broader impacts involve supporting an early career scientist, a postdoctoral scholar, a graduate student, and fostering mutually beneficial international collaborations.