Nq. Wu et al., Orbital forcing of terrestrial mollusks and climatic changes from the Loess Plateau of China during the past 350 ka, J GEO RES-A, 106(D17), 2001, pp. 20045-20054
High-resolution analyses of terrestrial mollusks from two loess sequences i
n the Chinese Loess Plateau provide continuous evidence of paleoecosystem a
nd paleoclimate processes through the recent three glacial-interglacial cyc
les. Systematic fluctuations in thermal-humidiphilous mollusk type (Punctum
orphana) indicate that the strength of the SE Asian summer monsoon is sens
itive to orbital forcing at the obliquity and precession periods (41 and 23
kyr, respectively). In contrast, the cold-aridiphilous mollusk (Vallonia t
enera and Pupilla aeoli) variability displays a different pattern. The stro
ngest powers are centered at about 100 kyr and 41 kyr periods, which drive
the major period of winter monsoon variations in the Chinese loess. These d
ifferent responses to winter and summer monsoon in the Loess Plateau of Chi
na suggest that both of these monsoon systems are tightly coupled in the 41
kyr cycle, but are not coincident relative to the precession (19-23 kyr) a
nd 100 kyr cycles. The relationship between the winter and summer monsoons
is not a simple model reflecting a seesaw pattern.