A long-term investigation of the variation in leaf wax n-alkanes responding to climate on Dongling Mountain, north China

Shi, Minrui; Jian-guo, Han; Wang, Guoan; Wang, Jia; Han, Yaowen; Cui, Linlin

doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2021.04.020

Cited by 13 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…alk is a proxy to indicate regional biomass and productivity, which are normally linked to vegetation coverage (Zhang et al, 2019). Precipitation and temperature are two main factors influencing this proxy (Wang et al, 2018;Shi et al, 2021). On the one hand, abundant precipitation can promote the growth of plants (Chen et al, 2015).…”

Section: Paleoclimatic Interpretation Of Alk Long-chainmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Investigation of Modern n-Alkanes in Daihai Lake Basin, Northern China: Implications for the Interpretation of Paleoclimate Research

et al. 2022

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n-Alkanes are one of the most used proxies in lake sediments to reconstruct past climate change. However, the distribution and concentration of n-alkanes are controlled by multiple factors, and their interpretation across northern China has revealed obvious discrepancies. It is therefore important to investigate the controlling factors of n-alkane proxies before using them for paleoclimate reconstruction. In this study, we collected fresh plant leaves, basin surface soils, lake surface sediments, and a short sediment core (DH20B) in the Daihai Lake basin to analyze the paleoclimate implications of n-alkanes. Our results show that long-chain (C27–C35) n-alkanes in Daihai Lake are dominated by allochthonous sources. The average chain length of long-chain n-alkanes (ACL27–35) and total long-chain n-alkane concentration (∑alklong-chain) of DH20B are significantly correlated with regional summer temperature (r = 0.54, p < 0.01) and summer precipitation (r = 0.41, p < 0.05) over the past 60 years. These results indicate that ACL27–35 and ∑alklong-chain from Daihai Lake sediments have the potential to reconstruct past summer temperature and summer precipitation, respectively, because higher summer temperature promotes the synthesis of longer-chain n-alkanes to reduce water loss (leading to higher ACL27–35) and increased summer precipitation promotes plant growth (leading to higher ∑alklong-chain). Moreover, we found that human activity significantly affected ∑alklong-chain through cultivation and grazing after 2005. Our findings may have broad significance for paleoclimate reconstruction of other hydrologically closed lakes, highlighting the importance of proxy validation studies.

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Section: Paleoclimatic Interpretation Of Alk Long-chainmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On the one hand, abundant precipitation can promote the growth of plants (Chen et al, 2015). Thus, there would be more biosynthetic n-alkanes due to the flourishing development of vegetation (Zhang et al, 2019;Shi et al, 2021). On the other hand, the temperature can also influence plant growth.…”

Section: Paleoclimatic Interpretation Of Alk Long-chainmentioning

confidence: 99%