A millennial scale planktonic foraminifer record of the mid-Pleistocene climate transition from the northern South China Sea

A high resolution record (∼1100 yr) of planktonic foraminifers from ODP Site 1144 in the northern South China Sea reveals rapid and strongly variable climatic changes during the mid-Pleistocene transition period. The abundance of warm water species decreased from an average of 60% in marine isotope stage (MIS) 29 to < 40% at MIS 22, followed by a steady increase in cool water species toward younger intervals. Many deep dwelling, warm water species decreased to a minimum during MIS 22 and remained extremely rare or even became absent in younger glacial intervals, indicating stepwise sea surface cooling in the region. Estimated SSTs show large fluctuations mostly at glacial–interglacial transitions. A maximum winter temperature difference of 11 °C (17–28 °C) across MIS 23/22 boundary likely corresponded to a major growth of boreal ice sheets across the MPT center at 0.9 myr, coupled with a strengthened winter monsoon over East Asia . The MPT event not only led to a better correlation between changes in species abundances and glacial–interglacial cycles but also a more constrained thermocline that shoaled considerably during subsequent glacial periods. The oxygen isotope record and the abundance of shallow water species display power spectra closely in pace with the 41,000 and 100,000 years cyclicities. A lower coherence over these cyclicities between deep-water dwelling species and the planktonic δ18O, a shoaled thermocline, and more pisitive glacial δ18O together suggest disturbances of surface and subsurface waters by intensified winter monsoons over the last 1.1–0.5 myr in the South China Sea.