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Different climatic controls of soil δ 13Corg in three mid-latitude regions of the Northern Hemisphere since the Last Glacial period

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Chinese Science Bulletin

Abstract

Paleoecological records of soil δ 13Corg from three regions in the middle latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, including the Chinese Loess Plateau (CLP), the Great Plains and adjacent areas of North America and northwestern Europe, showed different variations since the Last Glacial period. An attempt was made to evaluate the causes for the difference in δ 13Corg on the basis of the modern climatic data collected in these regions and of the modern C3 and C4 plant distributions. The analysis indicates that temperature, especially the growing season temperature, has a dominant control on the growth of C4 plants. When the mean annual or growing season temperatures are below the “threshold value”, the growth of C4 plants is limited. When the temperature is above the “threshold value”, C4 plants can grow under a wide range of precipitation. However, when the precipitation is high enough to favor the growth of trees, the proportions of C4 plants in local biomass will decline. The implicit control factor recovered by sedimentary records is consistent with the control factor on modern C3/C4 distribution. Pure C3 plants have been dominating the local biomass since the Last Glacial period in European loess region, mainly owing to the low local temperature. The increases in C4 plants from the late Pleistocene to the Holocene in the Chinese Loess Plateau, the Great Plains and adjacent areas, mainly reflect the influence of increasing temperature.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Marginal Sea Geology, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510640, China

    Rao ZhiGuo & Zhu ZhaoYu

  2. Center for Arid Environment and Paleoclimate Research (CAEP), Key Laboratory of Western China’s Environmental System of Ministry of Education, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    Rao ZhiGuo & Zhang JiaWu

  3. Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100039, China

    Rao ZhiGuo

Authors
  1. Rao ZhiGuo
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  2. Zhu ZhaoYu
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  3. Zhang JiaWu
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Correspondence to Rao ZhiGuo.

Additional information

Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 40331009), the Knowledge Innovation Programs of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. KZCX3-SW-152) and the National Basic Research Program of China (Grant Nos. 2003CCA00100, 2004 CB720 204)

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Rao, Z., Zhu, Z. & Zhang, J. Different climatic controls of soil δ 13Corg in three mid-latitude regions of the Northern Hemisphere since the Last Glacial period. CHINESE SCI BULL 52, 259–266 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-007-0006-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-007-0006-6

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