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Late holocene soil evolution and environment change in the southeast suburbs of Beijing, China

  • Soils, Sec 3 • Remediation and Management of Contaminated or Degraded Lands • Research Article
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Abstract

Purpose

Soils develop via a complex interaction of time, environment, climate, and human activity. As a proxy for paleoclimate reconstruction, soils have received less attention than other geological systems, and the limited attention was concentrated in loess sequences. Fluvisols form a subrecent natural archive that documents mid-term pedogenic processes and environmental change in floodplains. We investigated the pedological characteristics and pedogenesis of fluvisols in the Beijing region and presented a Late Holocene paleoenvironmental reconstruction based on it.

Methods

We applied the radiocarbon dating method to investigate soil formation in the floodplain of the North Canal in Beijing’s southeast suburbs. Soil morphology, soil texture, and environmental physical–chemical indicators (calcium carbonate, organic matter, total phosphorus, and total potassium) were selected for comprehensive analysis.

Results and discussion

Thorough integrated interpretation of soil development processes in the fluvisols sequence revealed regional paleoenvironmental and climatic developments. The paleoclimate of Beijing underwent a transition from warm and humid to temperate and dry, as well as multiple cold fluctuations. Multiple humic burial horizons in the fluvisol sequence were overlain by a mineral soil horizon with weak soil formation, indicating that fluvic geology processes interrupted the process of the fluvisol formation, corresponding to cold-dry fluctuations in a warm-humid paleoclimatic context in Beijing floodplain. There is a correlation between paleoclimatic environmental conditions and soil texture, organic matter, calcium carbonate, and other physical and chemical properties in the soil chronology.

Conclusions

As an emerging paleoenvironmental proxy, the geological process and soil-forming process of fluvisols inferred from soil properties can reconstruct the variation of paleoclimatic-environmental conditions. Fluvisol sequence build-up and illuviated accumulation of mineral material in the soil complex were more pronounced in warm and humid climatic conditions. Millennia of farming practices dominate the development of the uppermost fluvisols. Environmental reconstruction based on fluvisol soil properties is complementary to reconstruction drawing on other prevalent paleoclimate proxies. Fluvisol characterisation allows to disentangle gradual paleoenvironmental developments, including changes of climate, vegetation, and topography.

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Data availability

The dataset used in this study will be made available upon request to the corresponding author.

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Acknowledgements

We thank three anonymous reviewers for their careful and kind comments and advice.

Funding

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 42277044‬) and the Joint Funds of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. U2243236‬).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Water Environment Simulation, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China

    Jia Liang, Ye Zhao, Mengjie Song, Fangfang Li, Xitao Liu, Ke Sun & Lei Chen

  2. Dept. of Geography & Environmental Studies, California State University East Bay, 94542-3000, Hayward, CA, USA

    Gary Li

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  1. Jia Liang
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Correspondence to Ye Zhao.

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Liang, J., Zhao, Y., Song, M. et al. Late holocene soil evolution and environment change in the southeast suburbs of Beijing, China. J Soils Sediments 24, 1165–1180 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-023-03707-4

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