Signatures of Obliquity and Eccentricity in Soil Chronosequences

Abstract

AbstractPeriodic shifts in Earth's orbit alter incoming solar radiation and drive Quaternary climate cycles. However, unambiguous detection of these orbitally driven climatic changes in records of terrestrial sedimentation and pedogenesis remains poorly defined, limiting our understanding of climate change‐landscape feedbacks, impairing our interpretation of terrestrial paleoclimate proxies, and limiting linkages among pedogenesis, sedimentation, and paleoclimatic change. Using a meta‐analysis, we show that Quaternary soil ages preserved in the modern record have periodicities of 41 and 98 kyr, consistent with orbital cycles. Further, soil ages predominantly date to periods of low rates of climatic change following rapid climate shifts associated with glacial‐to‐interglacial transitions. Soil age appears linked to orbital cycles via climate‐modulated sediment deposition, which may largely constrain soil formation to distinct climate periods. These data demonstrate a record of widespread orbital cyclicity in sediment deposition and subsequent pedogenesis, providing a key insight into soil‐landscape evolution and terrestrial paleo‐environment changes.