Mollusk record of millennial climate variability in the Loess Plateau during the Last Glacial Maximum

A high-resolution terrestrial mollusk record from the Loess Plateau of China has been studied to characterize climate variability during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). The rapid successions in mollusk taxa in the Weinan loess sequence reveal that climate changes occurred at least four times in this period. In the loess region, millennia-scale climate fluctuations existed, as documented in the grain size and weathering intensity records. Our results show such millennia-scale fluctuations reflecting changes in both temperature and precipitation, rather than a simple cold and warm alternation. Changes in temperature and precipitation were not in phase during the LGM. Temperature varied earlier than precipitation, which could have been the effect of winter and summer monsoon interactions. Our data also reveal that the East Asian summer monsoons could reach the southeast part of the Loess Plateau during the whole of the LGM. The intensification of winter monsoons during the LGM led to short duration of summer monsoons annually impacting on the Loess Plateau, but the intrinsic intensity of summer monsoons would not have changed significantly, thus providing the thermo-hydrological conditions for temperate-humidiphilous mollusks to persistently grow and develop in the glacial age.