New progress in quantitative reconstruction of paleoclimate changes in the Chinese Loess Plateau
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    Abstract:

    Chinese loess, as a unique terrestrial archive comparable to deep- sea sediments, has been investigated intensively to infer late Cenozoic continental climate changes in East Asia. Multiple physiochemical proxies of Chinese loess have been used to reconstruct East Asian monsoon variations at tectonic to millennial timescales. These reconstructions provide key evidence for assessing the relationship between regional and global climate changes. In recent years, paleoclimate research on Chinese loess has gradually changed from qualitative descriptions to quantitative reconstructions. The objective of this paper is to review the new progress made in the quantitative reconstruction of paleo- temperature and paleo- precipitation changes on the Chinese Loess Plateau (CLP). Firstly, we present new proxies and methods that are relevant to the quantitative reconstruction of paleoclimate variables. The paleotemperature proxies include phytolith, carbonate coupling isotopes, and brGDGTs, while the proxies sensitive to paleo- precipitation comprise magnetic susceptibility, dolomite/calcite content, Sr/Ca ratio of microcodium, carbon isotopes of organic and inorganic carbon, and 10Be flux. Secondly, we summarize representative time series of quantitative reconstructions from several typical loess profiles, addressing spatio- temporal changes in paleo- temperature and paleo- rainfall at orbital and millennial timescales. Biomarker- based paleotemperature changes reveal similar glacial- interglacial fluctuations in soil temperature on the CLP. However, during the transition from the glacial maximum to deglaciation on the Chinese Loess Plateau, the increase in soil temperature diverged from marine records, indicating that land vegetation cover likely played an important role in regulating the change in soil temperature. By contrast, paleo- precipitation changes reconstructed through different proxies show large- amplitude glacial- interglacial fluctuations ranging from 100 to 900 mm/a, suggesting that robustly reconstructing precipitation changes still poses a significant challenge. Finally, the problems regarding the quantitative reconstruction of paleoclimate on the CLP are briefly summarized. We emphasize the need for future research to focus on seasonal changes in soil and air temperature and precipitation, as well as intensive proxy- model comparisons. These efforts will further enhance our understanding of multi- scale monsoon variability and dynamics.

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SUN Youbin, LU Hongxuan, ZHANG Zeke.2024. New progress in quantitative reconstruction of paleoclimate changes in the Chinese Loess Plateau[J]. Acta Geologica Sinica,98(3):1006-1023

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  • Online: March 27,2024
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