Abstract
The geological transitional period from the Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5 to 4 during the Quaternary period is a multidimensional change involving monsoon and precipitation variation, vegetation dynamics, and environmental evolution. The first loess layer (L1) and the first paleosol layer (S1) in the Chines Loess Plateau provide excellent high-resolution terrestrial sediment record for this transition. In this work, grain size (GS), CaCO3 content, magnetic susceptibility (MS), and pollen composition were measured at intervals of 2-cm in two representative L1/S1 profiles in the southern Chinese Loess Plateau to reconstruct records of climatic and vegetative changes during this transition. Our results showed that, in general, the paleo-vegetation type was forest-steppe, with Pinus being the commonest tree, and Chenopodiaceae and Artemisia being common herbs in the study area. The topography had a significant impact on the distribution of paleo-vegetation. The increase of coarse particles, the decrease of magnetic susceptibility, and the rising percentage of Gramineae, Artemisia and Chenopodiaceae pollen, all indicated that the paleoclimate became cooler and drier over the transitional period. Besides, we identified a cool event at about 76.8 ka B.P. as revealed by grain-size curves, and in response to this event, the vegetation changed significantly but lagged several hundred years behind the grain size record. This study confirmed the cooling and drying tendency during the MIS 5 to 4 transition phase in the southern margin of the Chinese Loess Plateau. These findings shed light on the climatic change on vegetation evolution during the MIS 5 to 4 transition period.
Highlights
The Chinese loess-paleosol sequence provides excellent records for reconstructing ecosystem evolution and monsoon climate variation during the Quaternary period
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Laboratory tests, and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) data, we are confident that the sampling profiles represented a time span of 70–78 ka B.P., which covered the transitional period from MIS 5 to 4 [29]
Summary
The Chinese loess-paleosol sequence provides excellent records for reconstructing ecosystem evolution and monsoon climate variation during the Quaternary period. Pieces of geological and historical evidence showed that global cooling might take place and have a significant impact on agriculture and ecosystem [15,16] Having in mind this knowledge gap, we chose a typical global cooling stage to explore vegetation evolution in relation to climatic oscillation, and the shift from Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5 to 4 was the optimal choice. This shift represented a transition from a typical warm-wet period to a cool-dry period, corresponding to the stratigraphic boundary between the first loess layer (L1) and the first paleosol layer (S1) in the Chinese Loess Plateau [17,18]. Stages MIS 5 and 4 were the closest typical warm and cool periods to with many previous studies for comparison [2,3,4]
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