Carbon isotope evidence of last glacial climate variations in the tropical NW Leizhou Peninsula, South China

Abstract

Zhong, W., Cao, J., Xue, J., Ouyang, J., Wang, H., Tang, X. & Gao, X. 2012 (January): Carbon isotope evidence of last glacial climate variations in the tropical NW Leizhou Peninsula, South China. Boreas, Vol. 41, pp. 102–112. 10.1111/j.1502‐3885.2011.00224.x. ISSN 0300‐9483.Bulk organic δ13C values of sediment sequences are commonly used to indicate past climatic changes, although the causes and mechanisms leading to the observed organic carbon isotope responses are presently not fully understood. Based on two sedimentary sequences, namely a peat profile and a fluvial and swamp sequence from the tropical NW Leizhou Peninsula in South China, we interpret more negative bulk organic δ13C values to suggest wetter and warmer conditions, implying a stronger East Asian (EA) summer monsoon, and less negative δ13C values to indicate drier and cooler conditions, reflecting a weakening of the EA summer monsoon. A warm and wet period occurred between c. 48.0 and 28.0 cal. ka BP. In the study region, a climate shift occurred at c. 22.0 (or 20.0) cal. ka BP, and the driest and coldest period occurred between c. 19.0 and 16.0 cal. ka BP. After c. 12.0 cal. ka BP, the climate changed towards wetter and warmer conditions. Several possible millennial‐scale dry and cold oscillations characterized possibly by C4 plants, or by more positive organic δ13C values during the period when C3 plants dominated, are cautiously and tentatively interpreted as showing a similarity with Heinrich events and other cold millennial‐scale oscillations evidenced from a Greenland ice core and Chinese stalagmite. We demonstrate that bulk organic δ13C records of sedimentary sequences in the study region have potential for indicating the changes in vegetation composition that were closely associated with climate variation during the last glacial period.