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Climate conditions and relative abundance of C3 and C4 vegetation during the past 40 ka inferred from lake sediments in Wudalianchi, northeast China

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Abstract

Paleoclimate and paleovegetation changes over the last 40 cal ka were recorded by multiple variables in a sediment core from Qingshi, Wudalianchi City, northeast China. The history of vegetation types inferred from n-C27/n-C31 and average chain length of n-alkanes indicates the paleovegetation went through several distinct stages, consistent with pollen records from the study area. Compound-specific carbon isotope composition was also determined for C27, C29 and C31 n-alkanes in the Qingshi core sediments. The relative abundance of C3 and C4 plants was calculated using a binary model and indicates that C3 plants were the dominant input during the last glacial and Holocene. There were, however, shifts in the ratio of C3 to C4 vegetation abundance that correspond to changes in climate conditions. Generally, the long-term trend towards greater C4 plant abundance from the last glacial to Holocene correlated with an increase in pCO2, higher temperature, greater precipitation and more growing season precipitation. Our results suggest that temperature and seasonality of precipitation played a strong role in altering the relative abundance of C3 and C4 plants in the study area. These results provide information for predicting future vegetation changes in response to on-going global warming.

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge Prof. Mark Brenner and the anonymous reviewers for thoughtful and constructive comments. This research was supported by the Chinese Academy of Sciences Key Project (Nos. XDB03020405, XDB10030404), the National Natural Science Foundation (41572350, 41503049), Western Light General Project, and the Key Laboratory Project of Gansu Province (Grant No. 1309RTSA041).

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  1. Key Laboratory of Petroleum Resources, Gansu Province / Key Laboratory of Petroleum Resources Research, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    Gen Wang, Yongli Wang, Zhifu Wei, Baoxiang Wu, Zixiang Wang, Zepeng Sun, Liang Xu & Youxiao Wang

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

    Gen Wang, Zixiang Wang, Zepeng Sun & Liang Xu

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  1. Gen Wang
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Correspondence to Yongli Wang or Zhifu Wei.

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Wang, G., Wang, Y., Wei, Z. et al. Climate conditions and relative abundance of C3 and C4 vegetation during the past 40 ka inferred from lake sediments in Wudalianchi, northeast China. J Paleolimnol 58, 243–256 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-017-9975-x

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