Holocene variations in Asian monsoon moisture: A bidecadal sediment record from the South China Sea

The East Asian monsoon system involves extensive transport of sensible/latent heat between land and sea and from low to high latitudes. Our high resolution, bidecadal marine records present a first detailed history of monsoon climate change over the Holocene. The high‐amplitude perturbation in monsoon moisture centered at 8,150 years ago and the monsoon maximum in the Early Holocene show inter‐hemispheric teleconnections to both a cool episode in Greenland and to the Indian monsoon monitored in the Arabian Sea. Periodicities of 84, 102 and, especially, near 775 years in monsoon variation suggest a climatic forcing both by long‐term oscillations in thermohaline circulation and (possibly) solar activity cycles.