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Distribution of glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers in surface soils along an altitudinal transect at cold and humid Mountain Changbai: Implications for the reconstruction of paleoaltimetry and paleoclimate

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Abstract

Glycerol Dialkyl Glycerol Tetraethers (GDGTs) serve as important tools for the quantitative reconstruction of paleoclimate and paleoecology in both continental and marine environments. Previous studies of GDGTs in the terrestrial environments focused primarily on the soils from the relatively warm-humid or cold-dry regions. However, it is still unclear how GDGTs respond to environmental variables in the cold-humid regions. Here, we collected soils along an altitudinal transect of Mountain (Mt.) Changbai, which has a typical cold-humid climate, to investigate the distribution of GDGTs and the response of GDGT-based proxies to changes in climate along the transect. The shift in the distribution of archaeal isoprenoidal GDGTs (isoGDGTs) revealed that the archaeal community varied significantly along the transect, which can affect the relationship between TEX86 and mean annual air temperature (MAT). In addition, the increased temperature seasonality at higher altitudes exerted a significant impact on TEX86. We proposed a global calibration of TEX86 for the growing season temperature reconstruction in the soil environments: T=85.19×TEX86−46.30 (R2=0.84, p<0.001). The methylation indices for 5-methyl branched GDGTs (brGDGTs) including MBT′5me and MBT5/6, showed correlation with soil water content but no relationship with MAT, indicating that MBT′5meand MBT5/6 from cold-humid environments may be not suitable for temperature and altitude reconstruction. In contrast, the recently developed pH proxies, including MBT′6me (the methylation index for 6-methyl brGDGTs), CBT (Cyclisation index of Branched Tetraethers), IRIIa’ (Isomer ratio of IIa′) and IRIIIa′ (Isomer ratio of IIIa′) exhibited significant correlations with soil pH, suggesting these proxies can still be used for soil pH reconstruction in the coldhumid regions. The combination of MBT′5me and MBT′6me was strongly related to different types of climate (cold-dry, warmhumid, cold-humid, and warm-dry). For example, MBT′5me<0.65 and MBT′6me>0.55 are diagnostic for the cold-humid climate. Thus, the combination of MBT′5me and MBT′6me has the potential as a tool for the identification of different types of paleoclimate.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Jia Juan from the Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, for providing some soil samples. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 41602189 & 41330103) and the Cradle Plan of China University of Geosciences (Grant No. CUGL170403).

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  1. School of Earth Sciences, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, 430074, China

    Yue Li, Shijin Zhao, Hongye Pei, Shi Qian, Jingjie Zang, Xinyue Dang & Huan Yang

  2. State Key Laboratory of Biogeology and Environmental Geology, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, 430074, China

    Huan Yang

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  1. Yue Li
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  2. Shijin Zhao
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  3. Hongye Pei
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Li, Y., Zhao, S., Pei, H. et al. Distribution of glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers in surface soils along an altitudinal transect at cold and humid Mountain Changbai: Implications for the reconstruction of paleoaltimetry and paleoclimate. Sci. China Earth Sci. 61, 925–939 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-017-9168-9

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