Holocene variations in Asian monsoon moisture: a bidecadal sediment recordfrom the South China Sea

The East Asian monsoon system involves extensive transport of sensible/late nt heat between land and sea and from low to high latitudes. Our high resol ution, bidecadal marine records present a first detailed history of monsoon climate change over the Holocene. The high-amplitude perturbation in monso on moisture centered at 8,150 years ago and the monsoon maximum in the Earl y Holocene show interhemispheric teleconnections to both a cool episode in Greenland and to the Indian monsoon monitored in the Arabian Sea. Periodici ties of 84, 102 and, especially, near 775 years in monsoon variation sugges t a climatic forcing both by long-term oscillations in thermohaline circula tion and (possibly) solar activity cycles.