Vegetation evolution on the central Chinese Loess Plateau since late Quaternary evidenced by elemental carbon isotopic composition

Abstract

There are many controversial issues in loess studies such as natural vegetation types on the Chinese Loess Plateau during the historical periods and the spatial and temporal evolution of C3/C4 plants. Elemental carbon isotopic composition (δ13Cec) in the loess section may offer new evidence for these problems. Elemental carbon (EC) is produced by incomplete combustion of vegetation, and its carbon isotopic composition has a very small difference from that of the formal vegetation, then δ13Cec can be used as a record to recover the changes of vegetation. Elemental carbon was extracted by applying the oxidation method from the loess-paleosol sequence in the central Chinese Loess Plateau, and its carbon isotope composition was analyzed by the isotope mass spectrometer. The results showed that the vegetation in this region was a mixed type of C3 and C4 plants, dominated with C3 plants in most of the time. Since late Quaternary, C3/C4 plants may not follow a simple glacial-interglacial cycle mode on the Chinese Loess Plateau, but showing fluctuations. C3 plants increased gradually in L4 period, and more C3 plants occurred during S3 period, and C4 plants increased again during L3-L2 periods, after that, C3 plants dominated again during S1-S0 periods. During periods of paleosol development, C3 plants were abundant in S3 and S1, and there were more C4 plants in S2 and S0. During periods of loess sedimentation, there were more C3 plants in L4 and L1, and there were more C4 plants in L3 and L2. On the orbital timescale, the vegetation variations revealed by δ13Cec record are consistent with the results of pollen data and also similar to the results obtained by organic carbon isotopic composition since the last glacial period.