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Sediment geochemistry of Dahu Swamp in the Nanling Mountains, South China: implication for catchment weathering during the last 16,000 years

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Abstract

This study emphasizes to testify the potential of geochemical proxies of lacustrine sediments as indicative of past climatic changes since the last deglaciation over the catchment of a small closed lake in South China. Based on the study on the core K02 from Dahu Swamp, a small lake in the eastern Nanling Mountains, we inferred that chemical features of clastic materials, which were mainly derived from the granite weathering crust and transported by surface runoff into this lake, possibly had played an important role in affecting chemical characteristics of the sediments. Wetter climatic conditions would lead to stronger chemical weathering intensity (CWI), resulting in more soluble and mobile elements being easily leached downward in granite weathering crusts and the insoluble ones being enriched in the top materials of the weathering crusts. In contrast, dry conditions would exert a converse influence. Although this study presents a different climatic implication of geochemistry from lacustrine sediments in South China from that in north-central China, the results demonstrate that chemical elements of sediments in the small lake in South China can be utilized to reflect the CWI, which was closely in association with variations in temperature and precipitation in the lake catchment.

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Acknowledgments

Analysis of radiocarbon dates was conducted at the Key Lab. of Western China’s Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education of China), Lanzhou University. Major and trace elements were measured at the Key Lab. of Geographical Process in Zhejiang Normal University, China. The X-ray diffraction measurement was done at Southeast University, China. We feel grateful to Prof. Chenjun Zhang, Prof. Jixiu Cao and Prof. Wei Ye for their help with laboratory analyses. We sincerely thank the anonymous reviewers for their thorough comments and constructive suggestions, which significantly improved the manuscript. This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation (NSF) of China (No. 41071137 and 40671189), Research Program of Guangdong Province for High-level Talents, Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (No. 8151063101000044) and the Fok Ying Tung Education Foundation grants (No. 91021).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Geography Sciences, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510631, China

    Wei Zhong, Jibin Xue, Yanming Zheng, Qiaohong Ma, Ying Cai, Jun Ouyang, Jiayuan Cao & Xiaohong Tang

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  1. Wei Zhong
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  2. Jibin Xue
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  3. Yanming Zheng
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  4. Qiaohong Ma
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  7. Jiayuan Cao
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  8. Xiaohong Tang
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Correspondence to Wei Zhong.

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Zhong, W., Xue, J., Zheng, Y. et al. Sediment geochemistry of Dahu Swamp in the Nanling Mountains, South China: implication for catchment weathering during the last 16,000 years. Int J Earth Sci (Geol Rundsch) 101, 453–462 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00531-011-0680-0

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