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Environmental evolution recorded by lipid biomarkers from the Tawan loess–paleosol sequences on the west Chinese Loess Plateau during the late Pleistocene

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Abstract

This study provides a reconstruction of the environmental evolution since 128 ka recorded by the lipid biomarkers of the C15–C35 n-alkanes, the C13–C33 n-alkan-2-ones and the C12–C30 n-alkanols isolated from the Tawan loess section, Northwest China. Variations in paleoenvironment are reconstructed from the values of the carbon preference index (CPI), the average chain length (ACL), the L/H (ratio of lower-molecular-weight to higher-molecular-weight homologues), the n-alkane C27/C31 ratios, and the n-alkan-2-one C27/C31 ratio. These parameters indicate the dominance of grasses over the west Chinese Loess Plateau (CLP) during the late Pleistocene. Lower values of the CPI and the ACL values, respectively, indicate stronger microbial reworking of organic matter and changes in plant species, which are both indicative of a warmer-wetter environment. Furthermore, the fluctuations of environment recorded in the Tawan section exhibit ten phases that show obvious cycles between warm periods and cold intervals. This study reveals that changes in the biomarker proxies agree well with changes in the magnetic susceptibility and grain size, and it indicates a huge potential for paleoenvironmental reconstructions by using the n-alkan-2-one and n-alkanol proxies.

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Acknowledgments

Supported by China Geological Survey (No. 1212010610103), National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 40921062). We sincerely thank Dr. James W. LaMoreaux and the anonymous reviewers for the constructive comments. We thank Xinmin Ma, Lin Chen, Jingfang Lu, Guoqiao Xiao, Jingwei Cui for assistance and discussion. F. Zeng is very grateful to Prof. Shucheng Xie for providing helpful suggestions and GC/MS apparatus. We acknowledge Prof. Philip A. Meyers and Dr. Xianyu Huang for their invaluable work in polishing the manuscript.

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  1. Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Graduate University, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Box 9825, Beijing, 100029, China

    Fangming Zeng

  2. Faculty of Earth Sciences, State Key Lab of Geological Processes and Mineral Resources, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, 430074, China

    Shuyuan Xiang & Kexin Zhang

  3. Development and Research Center, China Geological Survey, Beijing, 100037, China

    Yulin Lu

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  1. Fangming Zeng
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Zeng, F., Xiang, S., Zhang, K. et al. Environmental evolution recorded by lipid biomarkers from the Tawan loess–paleosol sequences on the west Chinese Loess Plateau during the late Pleistocene. Environ Earth Sci 64, 1951–1963 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-011-1012-1

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