Atmospheric systems drive spatiotemporal divergence of dust and moisture changes across Asia over the past 130,000 years

Guoqiang Li; He Yang; Xiaojian Zhang; Jiaxin Li; Peirui Du; Dongmei Han; Run Zhou; Yougui Song; Kathryn E Fitzsimmons; Aditi K Dave; Shuangwen Yi; Shugang Kang; Thomas Stevens; Jan-Pieter Buylaert; Zhongping Lai; Yixuan Wang; Ji Lai; Zhongfeng Yan; Jin Yang; Xiaoyan Wang; Luo Qin; Siyi Gou; Chunzhu Chen; Chongyi E; Qiuyue Zhao; Leibin Wang; Tao Lu; Yanqing Deng; Lele Shu; Lupeng Yu; Xiangjun Liu; Zhiyong Ling; Qiufang Chang; Haitao Wei; Haichao Xie; Fahu Chen

doi:10.1126/sciadv.adx8500

Atmospheric systems drive spatiotemporal divergence of dust and moisture changes across Asia over the past 130,000 years

Sci Adv. 2026 Mar 13;12(11):eadx8500. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adx8500. Epub 2026 Mar 11.

Authors

Guoqiang Li¹, He Yang^{1

2}, Xiaojian Zhang³, Jiaxin Li¹, Peirui Du¹, Dongmei Han⁴, Run Zhou¹, Yougui Song⁵, Kathryn E Fitzsimmons⁶, Aditi K Dave⁷, Shuangwen Yi³, Shugang Kang⁵, Thomas Stevens^{8

9}, Jan-Pieter Buylaert¹⁰, Zhongping Lai¹¹, Yixuan Wang¹², Ji Lai¹, Zhongfeng Yan¹, Jin Yang¹, Xiaoyan Wang¹, Luo Qin¹, Siyi Gou¹, Chunzhu Chen¹³, Chongyi E¹⁴, Qiuyue Zhao¹⁵, Leibin Wang¹⁶, Tao Lu¹², Yanqing Deng¹⁷, Lele Shu¹⁸, Lupeng Yu¹⁹, Xiangjun Liu²⁰, Zhiyong Ling¹², Qiufang Chang²¹, Haitao Wei¹, Haichao Xie²², Fahu Chen^{1

22}

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China.
² School of Atmospheric Sciences, Chengdu University of Information Technology, Chengdu 610000, China.
³ School of Geography and Ocean Science, Frontiers Science Center for Critical Earth Material Cycling, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Water Cycle & Related Land Surface Processes, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
⁵ State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an 710061, China.
⁶ School of Earth Atmosphere and Environment, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria 3800, Australia.
⁷ Institute of Earth Surface Dynamics, University of Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
⁸ Department of Earth Sciences, Uppsala University, Villavagen 16, Uppsala 75236, Sweden.
⁹ Department of Geosciences and Geography, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 64, 00014 Helsinki, Finland.
¹⁰ Department of Physics, Technical University of Denmark, DTU Risø Campus, Roskilde 2800, Denmark.
¹¹ Institute of Marine Sciences, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Marine Disaster Prediction and Protection, Shantou University, Shantou, Guangdong 515063, China.
¹² Key Laboratory of Green and High-end Utilization of Salt Lake Resources, Qinghai Institute of Salt Lakes, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xining 810008, China.
¹³ School of Geographic Science, Nantong University, Nantong 226007, China.
¹⁴ Qinghai Provincial Key Laboratory of Physical Geography and Environmental Processes, School of Geographical Science, Qinghai Normal University, Xining 810008, China.
¹⁵ Key Laboratory of Tourism and Resources Environment in Universities of Shandong, Taishan University, Taian 271000, China.
¹⁶ Centre for Climate and Environmental Changes, School of Geographical Sciences, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510006, China.
¹⁷ Institute of Geography, Henan Academy of Sciences, Zhengzhou 450046, China.
¹⁸ Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China.
¹⁹ Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Water and Soil Conservation & Environmental Protection and Prevention, School of Resource and Environmental Sciences, Linyi University, Linyi, Shandong 276000, China.
²⁰ School of Geography and Tourism, Jiaying University, Meizhou 514015, China.
²¹ School of Geography and Tourism, Zhengzhou Normal University, Zhengzhou 450044, China.
²² Alpine Paleoecology and Human Adaptation Group (ALPHA), State Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Earth System, Environment and Resources, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.

Abstract

Loess-paleosol sequences across Asia provide a critical archive of past dust deposition and climate dynamics shaped by westerlies and Asian monsoons. We compile luminescence ages and climatic proxies from 107 loess sections to reconstruct dust mass accumulation rates (MARs) and hydroclimate variability over the past 130 thousand years (ka). The results reveal a consistent pattern: high MARs and low moisture during Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 4 to 2 (71 to 12 ka) and low MARs with high moisture during MIS 5 (130 to 71 ka) and MIS 1 (12 ka to present). These shifts are driven by cooling-induced changes in atmospheric humidity linked to fluctuations in ice volume across glacial-interglacial cycles. Within MIS 5, MIS 4 to 2, and MIS 1, pronounced spatial and temporal contrasts in MARs and moisture emerge between westerlies-dominated northern Iran and central Asia and monsoon-dominated East Asia. Notably, westerly and monsoonal precipitation vary out of phase, driven by insolation-controlled shifts in moisture transport.