Quaternary biogenic opal records in the South China Sea: Linkages to East Asian monsoon, global ice volume and orbital forcing

Particulate fluxes investigated in the central South China Sea (SCS) during 1993–1996 indicate that opal flux can be used to show primary productivity change, which provides a foundation for tracing the evolutionary relationship between the surface productivity and East Asian monsoon in the SCS during the late Quaternary glacial and interglacial periods. Based on the studies of opal % and their mass accumulation rates (MAR) at the six sites recovered from the SCS during the “Resolution” ODP Leg 184 and “Sonne” 95 cruise of the Sino-Germany cooperation, opal % and their MARs increased evidently in the northern sites since 470–900 ka, and they enhanced and reduced, respectively, during the glacial and interglacial periods. Whereas they increased obviously in the southern sites since 420–450 ka, and they augmented and declined, respectively, during the interglacial and glacial periods. The variability in opal % and their MARs in the late Quaternary glacial cyclicity indicate the “seesaw” pattern of surface productivity in the SCS. The winter monsoon intensified during the glacial periods, surface productivity increased and decreased, respectively, in the northern and southern SCS. The summer monsoon strengthened during the interglacial periods, surface productivity increased and decreased, respectively, in the southern and northern SCS. The cross spectral analyses between the opal % in the northern and southern SCS during the Quaternary and global ice volume (δ 18O) and orbital forcing (ETP) indicate that the East Asian winter and summer monsoons could be ascribed to the different drive mechanisms. On the orbital time scale, the global ice volume change could be a dominant factor for the winter monsoon intension and temporal variations. As compared with the winter monsoon, the correlative summer solar radiation with the obliquity and precession in the Northern Hemisphere could be a mostly controlling factor for the summer monsoon intension and temporal variations.