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Deciphering the response of sediment routing systems to climatic forcing is fundamental for understanding the impacts of climate change on landscape evolution. In the Kangra Basin (northwest Sub-Himalaya, India), upper Pleistocene to Holocene alluvial fills and fluvial terraces record periodic fluctuations of sediment supply and transport capacity on timescales of 10(3) to 10(5) yr. To evaluate the potential influence of climate change on these fluctuations, we compare the timing of aggradation and incision phases recorded within remnant alluvial fans and terraces with climate archives. New surface-exposure dating of six terrace levels with in-situ cosmogenic Be-10 indicates the onset of incision phases. Two terrace surfaces from the highest level (T1) sculpted into the oldest preserved alluvial fan (AF1) date back to 53.4 +/- 3.2 ka and 43.0 +/- 2.7 ka (1 sigma). T2 surfaces sculpted into the remnants of AF1 have exposure ages of 18.6 +/- 1.2 ka and 15.3 +/- 0.9 ka, while terraces sculpted into the upper Pleistocene-Holocene fan (AF2) provide ages of 9.3 +/- 0.4 ka (T3), 7.1 +/- 0.4 ka (T4), 5.2 +/- 0.4 ka (T5) and 3.6 +/- 0.2 ka (T6). Together with previously published OSL ages yielding the timing of aggradation, we find a correlation between variations in sediment transport with oxygen-isotope records from regions affected by the Indian Summer Monsoon. During periods of increased monsoon intensity and post-Last Glacial Maximum glacial retreat, aggradation occurred in the Kangra Basin, likely due to high sediment flux, whereas periods of weakened monsoon intensity or lower sediment supply coincide with incision. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Ocean-land thermal feedback mechanisms in the Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM) domain are an important but not well understood component of regional climate dynamics. Here we present a O-18 record analyzed in the mixed-layer dwelling planktonic foraminifer Globigerinoides ruber (sensu stricto) from the northernmost Bay of Bengal (BoB). The O-18 time series provides a spatially integrated measure of monsoonal precipitation and Himalayan meltwater runoff into the northern BoB and reveals two brief episodes of anomalously low O-18 values between 16.30.4 and 160.5 and 12.60.4 and 12.30.4 thousand years before present. The timing of these events is centered at Heinrich event 1 and the Younger Dryas, well-known phases of weak northern hemisphere monsoon systems. Numerical climate model experiments, simulating Heinrich event-like conditions, suggest a surface warming over the monsoon-dominated Himalaya and foreland in response to ISM weakening. Corroborating the simulation results, our analysis of published moraine exposure ages in the monsoon-dominated Himalaya indicates enhanced glacier retreats that, considering age model uncertainties, coincide and overlap with the episodes of anomalously low O-18 values in the northernmost BoB. Our climate proxy and simulation results provide insights into past regional climate dynamics, suggesting reduced cloud cover, increased solar radiation, and air warming of the Himalaya and foreland areas and, as a result, glacier mass losses in response to weakened ISM. Plain Language Summary Indian Summer Monsoon rainfall and Himalayan glacier/snow melts constitute the main water source for the densely populated Indian subcontinent. Better understanding of how future climate changes will affect the monsoon rainfall and Himalayan glaciers requires a long climate record. In this study, we create a 13,000-year-long climate record that allows us to better understand the response of Indian Summer Monsoon rainfall and Himalayan glaciers to past climate changes. The focus of our study is the time window between 9,000 and 22,000 years ago, an episode where the global climate experienced large and rapid changes. Our sediment record from the northern Bay of Bengal and climate change simulation indicate that during episodes of weak monsoon, the melting of the Himalayan glaciers increases substantially significantly. This is because the weakening of the monsoon results in less cloud cover and, as a result, the surface receives more sunlight and causes glacier melting.