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The precipitation “threshold value” on C4/C3 abundance of the Loess Plateau, China

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  • Earth Sciences
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Abstract

In this paper, we report organic carbon isotopic characterizations from two loess sequences (JY and GL), spanning the last 20 ka, from the northwest Chinese Loess Plateau (CLP). The results indicate that the vegetation type is nearly pure C3 plants in the studied region during the Holocene. In contrast to other reported loess sequences in the central–southeast CLP, the relative abundance of the C4 plants decreases from southeast to northwest, with the vegetation types changing from pure C3 to a C4/C3 mixture should near 36°N in the Holocene. From the perspective of the modern temperature and precipitation distribution, the summer temperature has no obvious change at the same latitude, but there are differences in the summer precipitation, which exhibit an obvious increase from west to east. Further analysis indicated that the C4 plant abundance decreases with the decreasing summer season precipitation from the southeast to the northwest CLP during the Holocene. We suggest that with the absence of favorable precipitation condition, increasing temperature and decreasing atmospheric CO2 concentration are insufficient to drive an expansion of the C4 plants on the CLP in the Holocene. According to a Holocene precipitation reconstruction, a “threshold value” of summer precipitation existed, which mainly controlled the expansion of C4 plants. Compared with the modern δ 13Csom and climate data on the CLP, both the Holocene and the present “threshold value” are near the 360-mm summer precipitation line, although the present precipitation line turned slightly southwestward. Our results provide new insights for further research on the C4/C3 variations with precipitation and the relationship to global C4/C3 change.

摘要

黄土高原自西向东黄土剖面的δ 13Csom变化表明:在全新世,西北部的古浪和靖远剖面主要发育C3植被,而中部和东南部的剖面则为C3–C4植被混合的特征,且C4植被含量从东南向西北递减。通过对黄土高原地区全新世降水量的定量恢复,结合现代气象数据和表土δ 13Csom变化特征,认为在黄土高原地区,降水梯度变化是影响C4植被量变化的主要因素,无论在全新世还是现代,当夏季降水超过360 mm时,C4植被会发生明显的扩张,而现代的360 mm降水线较全新世向东南方向偏移。

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Strategic Leading Science and Technology Special Project (XDA05120402) and the Open Fund for the State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology (SKLLQG1119).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi’an, 710075, China

    Boya Sun, Weiguo Liu, Youbin Sun & Zhisheng An

  2. University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Boya Sun

  3. School of Human Settlement and Civil Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’ an, 710049, China

    Weiguo Liu

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  1. Boya Sun
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Correspondence to Boya Sun.

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Sun, B., Liu, W., Sun, Y. et al. The precipitation “threshold value” on C4/C3 abundance of the Loess Plateau, China. Sci. Bull. 60, 718–725 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-014-0675-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-014-0675-x

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