Fig. 5.

Abrupt transitions in paleoclimatic datasets. We apply our method to three paleoclimatic δ ¹⁸O proxy records from a Dongge, b Tianmen, and c Qunf caves in Asia. Statistically significant events (plus signs) show a scatter of events throughout the Holocene, corresponding to periods of weakened ASM (blue squares in (d)). The weak ASM events are postulated to be synchronous with BEs in the North Atlantic (green squares in (d)), a hypothesis that we are able to confirm with the results from our transition detection analysis. Barring the BE at 1400 yrs bp, all other BEs have a corresponding weak ASM that has been detected. At 1400 yrs bp, the Dongge cave record shows a potential dip in the p-value, but which is not statistically significant after accounting for multiple comparisons. Note that in (a–c), the plus and cross signs, and the horizontal dashed lines denote the same as in Fig. 3