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Persistent El Niño-like conditions over the western Pacific during the Bølling–Allerød interstadial

Huang, Jie ; Yang, Zaibao ; Lu, Zhengyao LU orcid ; Wan, Shiming ; Chang, Fengming ; Zhang, Shuai LU ; Sun, Hanjie ; Ma, Xiaochuan ; Li, Anchun and Li, Tiegang (2025) In Communications Earth and Environment 7(1).
Abstract

Projecting El Niño-Southern Oscillation responses to future climate change are hindered by limited paleoclimate records spanning past abrupt climate transitions. This study combines multi-proxy records from the Northwest Borneo Trough over the past 30 kyr with transient climate simulations, reconstructing tropical western Pacific hydroclimate during Heinrich events and Bølling–Allerød warming. Results show contrasting responses: Heinrich events saw stronger winter monsoons bringing northern moisture for Borneo’s orographic rain, while Bølling–Allerød warming initiated central Pacific El Niño-like conditions tied to Northern Hemisphere ice-sheet retreat beyond a critical threshold and subsequently sustained by insolation minimum,... (More)

Projecting El Niño-Southern Oscillation responses to future climate change are hindered by limited paleoclimate records spanning past abrupt climate transitions. This study combines multi-proxy records from the Northwest Borneo Trough over the past 30 kyr with transient climate simulations, reconstructing tropical western Pacific hydroclimate during Heinrich events and Bølling–Allerød warming. Results show contrasting responses: Heinrich events saw stronger winter monsoons bringing northern moisture for Borneo’s orographic rain, while Bølling–Allerød warming initiated central Pacific El Niño-like conditions tied to Northern Hemisphere ice-sheet retreat beyond a critical threshold and subsequently sustained by insolation minimum, combined with Southern Hemisphere forcing, leading to regional dryness/seasonal aridity. We demonstrate dual high-latitude controls on western Pacific variability during Dansgaard–Oeschger cycles: hemispheric thermal gradients and ice-sheet topography. These findings reveal the links between ice sheets, insolation, and western Pacific El Niño-like conditions, offering valuable insights into long-term El Niño-Southern Oscillation dynamics and future behavior.

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author
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Communications Earth and Environment
volume
7
issue
1
article number
22
publisher
Springer Nature
external identifiers
  • scopus:105027163005
ISSN
2662-4435
DOI
10.1038/s43247-025-03053-y
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2025.
id
a83a9bda-7e40-486a-945f-c34a4e1a9812
date added to LUP
2026-03-09 15:30:41
date last changed
2026-03-10 10:22:39
@article{a83a9bda-7e40-486a-945f-c34a4e1a9812,
  abstract     = {{<p>Projecting El Niño-Southern Oscillation responses to future climate change are hindered by limited paleoclimate records spanning past abrupt climate transitions. This study combines multi-proxy records from the Northwest Borneo Trough over the past 30 kyr with transient climate simulations, reconstructing tropical western Pacific hydroclimate during Heinrich events and Bølling–Allerød warming. Results show contrasting responses: Heinrich events saw stronger winter monsoons bringing northern moisture for Borneo’s orographic rain, while Bølling–Allerød warming initiated central Pacific El Niño-like conditions tied to Northern Hemisphere ice-sheet retreat beyond a critical threshold and subsequently sustained by insolation minimum, combined with Southern Hemisphere forcing, leading to regional dryness/seasonal aridity. We demonstrate dual high-latitude controls on western Pacific variability during Dansgaard–Oeschger cycles: hemispheric thermal gradients and ice-sheet topography. These findings reveal the links between ice sheets, insolation, and western Pacific El Niño-like conditions, offering valuable insights into long-term El Niño-Southern Oscillation dynamics and future behavior.</p>}},
  author       = {{Huang, Jie and Yang, Zaibao and Lu, Zhengyao and Wan, Shiming and Chang, Fengming and Zhang, Shuai and Sun, Hanjie and Ma, Xiaochuan and Li, Anchun and Li, Tiegang}},
  issn         = {{2662-4435}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{11}},
  number       = {{1}},
  publisher    = {{Springer Nature}},
  series       = {{Communications Earth and Environment}},
  title        = {{Persistent El Niño-like conditions over the western Pacific during the Bølling–Allerød interstadial}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-03053-y}},
  doi          = {{10.1038/s43247-025-03053-y}},
  volume       = {{7}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}