Decoupled hydroclimate of Central and Southwestern Iran controlled by the strength of southerly-westerly jets during Marine Isotope Stage 3

<p><span>Abstract</span></p> <p><span>The regional impact of abrupt glacial climate variability remains poorly constrained for arid southwestern Asia, particularly winter dynamics during Marine Isotope Stage 3, due to limited paleoarchives in the Middle East. Here, we present novel continuous speleothem records of &delta;¹⁸O and &delta;¹³C for Southwestern and Central Iran, spanning the interval ~50-30 ka. Stable-isotope signals in the two stalagmites are generally uncorrelated and do not exhibit a consistent response</span><span> </span><span>to Greenland stadials or interstadials; however, both show a positive &delta;¹⁸O excursion that coincides with Heinrich event 4. We explore the potential mechanisms for intermittent coupling of speleothem </span><span>&delta;</span>^{<span>18</span>}<span>O across Iran through isotope-enabled atmospheric modelling outputs, from which we utilize the spatial </span><span>&delta;</span>^{<span>18</span>}<span>O gradient as a proxy for wintertime westerly vs. southerly jet strength. Our results suggest that during Heinrich event 4 and several Greenland stadials, stronger westerly winds enhanced Mediterranean moisture contributions to both sites and reduced aridity in southern Iran.</span></p>