Biomarkers of modern plants and soils from Xinglong Mountain in the transitional area between the Tibetan and Loess Plateaus

Lei, Guoliang; Zhang, Hucai; Chang, Fengqin; Pu, Yulin; Zhu, Yun; Yang, Mingsheng; Wen-xiang, Zhang

doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2009.12.009

Cited by 24 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Zhang et al, 2006;Lei et al, 2010;Bush and McInerney, 2013;Zech et al, 2013a, b). We tested several n-alkane ratios (i.e.…”

Section: Leaf Wax N-alkane Abundances and Chain Length Patternsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The relative odd homologue abundance may be useful to discriminate between different vegetation types: C 27 and C 29 have been reported to be predominant in leaf waxes of trees and shrubs, whereas C 31 and C 33 mostly derive from grasses and herbs (Maffei, 1996;Maffei et al, 2004;Rommerskirchen et al, 2006;Zech et al, 2009;Lei et al, 2010;Kirkels et al, 2013). From this distribution, various n-alkane ratios have been proposed that allow estimating the main contributing vegetation type to a palaeosample (Schwark et al, 2002;Zech et al, 2009;Lei et al, 2010;Schatz et al, 2011;Wiesenberg et al, 2015). Where pollen grains are preserved, leaf wax and pollen records are in good agreement (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Leaf waxes in litter and topsoils along a European transect

Schäfer

Lanny

Franke

et al. 2016

SOIL

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Abstract. Lipid biomarkers are increasingly used to reconstruct past environmental and climate conditions. Leaf-wax-derived long-chain n-alkanes and n-alkanoic acids may have great potential for reconstructing past changes in vegetation, but the factors that affect the leaf wax distribution in fresh plant material, as well as in soils and sediments, are not yet fully understood and need further research. We systematically investigated the influence of vegetation and soil depth on leaf waxes in litter and topsoils along a European transect. The deciduous forest sites are often dominated by the n-C 27 alkane and n-C 28 alkanoic acid. Conifers produce few n-alkanes but show high abundances of the C 24 n-alkanoic acid. Grasslands are characterized by relatively high amounts of C 31 and C 33 n-alkanes and C 32 and C 34 n-alkanoic acids. Chain length ratios thus may allow for distinguishing between different vegetation types, but caution must be exercised given the large species-specific variability in chain length patterns. An updated endmember model with the new n-alkane ratio (n-C 31 + n-C 33 ) / (n-C 27 + n-C 31 + n-C 33 ) is provided to illustrate, and tentatively account for, degradation effects on nalkanes.

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“…Zhang et al, 2006;Lei et al, 2010;Bush and McInerney, 2013;Zech et al, 2013a, b). We tested several n-alkane ratios (i.e.…”

Section: Leaf Wax N-alkane Abundances and Chain Length Patternsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Leaf waxes in litter and topsoils along a European transect

Schäfer

Lanny

Franke

et al. 2016

SOIL

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“…Variations of n-alkane ACL values (ACL-alk) related to environmental conditions have been observed in modern higher plants (Cui et al 2008;Lei et al 2010), and loess sediments (Zhang et al , 2008Bai et al 2009). Because the ACL-alk values in grasses are higher than those in trees (Lei et al 2010), the variation of ACL-alk values can to some degree sensitively record changes in plant species.…”

Section: Acl Valuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Excursions to higher values in samples L1L2 (depth at 13.4 m) and L1L3 (26.6 m) could be caused by increases in the amounts of grass plants, which produce large proportions of the C 31 n-alkane (Cui et al 2008;Lei et al 2010), whilst lower values recorded in samples S1 and L1S1-L1S2 might result from a relative increase in the warm-adapted woody plants that produce large amounts of the C 27 and C 29 n-alkanes (Cranwell 1973;Lei et al 2010) (Fig. 5).…”

Section: Acl Valuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…C 27 /C 31 ratios in n-alkanes and n-alkan-2-ones Woody plants typically have n-alkane distributions dominated by the C 27 or C 29 n-alkanes, whereas grassy plants mainly have distributions dominated by the C 31 n-alkane (Cranwell 1973;Rieley et al 1991;Maffei 1996;Marseille et al 1999;Cui et al 2008;Lei et al 2010). Moreover, the validity of the n-alkane C 27 /C 31 ratios (C 27 /C 31 -alk) as a record the relative change between woody plants and grassy plants has been confirmed in lake sediments (Cranwell 1973;Brincat et al 2000), red-earth soil (Xie et al 2003d) and loess-paleosol sequences (Xie et al 2002;Bai et al 2009).…”

Section: Acl Valuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Environmental evolution recorded by lipid biomarkers from the Tawan loess–paleosol sequences on the west Chinese Loess Plateau during the late Pleistocene

Zeng

Zhang

et al. 2011

Environ Earth Sci

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This study provides a reconstruction of the environmental evolution since 128 ka recorded by the lipid biomarkers of the C 15 -C 35 n-alkanes, the C 13 -C 33 n-alkan-2-ones and the C 12 -C 30 n-alkanols isolated from the Tawan loess section, Northwest China. Variations in paleoenvironment are reconstructed from the values of the carbon preference index (CPI), the average chain length (ACL), the L/H (ratio of lower-molecular-weight to highermolecular-weight homologues), the n-alkane C 27 /C 31 ratios, and the n-alkan-2-one C 27 /C 31 ratio. These parameters indicate the dominance of grasses over the west Chinese Loess Plateau (CLP) during the late Pleistocene. Lower values of the CPI and the ACL values, respectively, indicate stronger microbial reworking of organic matter and changes in plant species, which are both indicative of a warmer-wetter environment. Furthermore, the fluctuations of environment recorded in the Tawan section exhibit ten phases that show obvious cycles between warm periods and cold intervals. This study reveals that changes in the biomarker proxies agree well with changes in the magnetic susceptibility and grain size, and it indicates a huge potential for paleoenvironmental reconstructions by using the n-alkan-2-one and n-alkanol proxies.

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