The Asian Monsoon Moisture Transportation Revealed by Two Cave Sites in Myanmar

Here we present two well-resolved, calcite δ¹⁸O records on Myanmar speleothems. The samples were collected from a coastal site in southeastern Myanmar and a plateau site in central Myanmar, respectively. Chronologically determined by high-precision U/Th dating techniques, both records span a large portion of the past 40,000 years. The two records show similar millennial-scale oscillations during the last glacial period, which are also in-phase with the speleothem records from Chinese cave sites located in the downstream of Indian Monsoon trajectories.

The δ¹⁸O values between the two profiles are virtually the same, ~ -7.5‰, during late Holocene, in concert with the numbers in modern rainfall at the two sites. However, in glacial time, the δ¹⁸O value of the central Myanmar record shifts from -6.5‰ to -8‰, approximately 2‰ lower than that in the coastal dataset, which varies from -4.5‰ to -6‰. We interpret the similarly low δ¹⁸O values during Holocene in both records as a result of strong monsoonal rainfall and water recycling particularly through forest transpiration. However in glacial time, with a possibly drier and less forested land, water recycling is weaker. Therefore, rainfall δ¹⁸O and subsequently speleothem δ¹⁸O appear a stronger geographical gradient, possibly dominated by the continental rainout effect.

Our interpretation can be supported by the speleothem δ¹³C records from the two sites. Calcite δ¹³C from the coastal site varies slightly from ~-7‰ in the last glacial to ~-9‰ in Holocene. Whereas it shares a similar value to the coastal record during Holocene, the δ¹³C profile from the plateau site shows a much higher value, up to -0.7‰, during the glacial time. This suggests that the mountainous region in central Myanmar was likely dominated by C4 plants (e.g., grass) during the glacial time, while the same region is covered by forests today. Such change on vegetation type and coverage may influence the δ¹⁸O of recycling moisture transported further inland.