Dongxue Li , Hui Zhao , Haichao Xie , Aijun Sun , Farhad Khormali , Xin Wang , Qiang Wang , Hamid Lahijani , Hassan Fazeli Nashli , Yujie Xu , Fahu Chen
{"title":"Loess-paleosol sedimentological characteristics in northern Iran since the last interglacial and their paleoenvironmental significance","authors":"Dongxue Li , Hui Zhao , Haichao Xie , Aijun Sun , Farhad Khormali , Xin Wang , Qiang Wang , Hamid Lahijani , Hassan Fazeli Nashli , Yujie Xu , Fahu Chen","doi":"10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109213","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109213","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The climatic signals recorded by loess sequences vary between different regions, which makes it important to study loess sequences worldwide. The loess deposits in northern Iran are situated in the transitional zone between the European loess and Central Asian loess. However, the depositional dynamics and paleoenvironmental significance of the loess deposits in this region are not well understood, making it difficult to establish detailed correlations with loess deposits elsewhere, partly due to the lack of systematic and high-resolution chronological control. We used K-feldspar pIR<sub>50</sub>IR<sub>290</sub> and MET-pIRIR<sub>250</sub> luminescence dating protocols to date fifty-two K-feldspar samples from the Toshan-19 section in the northern foothills of the Alborz Mountains, northern Iran. These chronological data, along with the climate proxies of magnetic susceptibility and redness, combined with a comparison with published loess records from various regions, indicate the following: (1) K-feldspar luminescence ages obtained using pIRIR and MET-pIRIR protocols are consistent, and their luminescence ages up to ∼200 ka are deemed dependable. The loess at Toshan was primarily deposited during 78–24 ka, corresponding to MIS 4–2, and the paleosols developed during 139–78, and 24–1.7 ka, corresponding respectively to MIS 5, and late MIS 2–MIS 1. (2) Drier conditions prevailed during the last glacial and wetter conditions dominated during the last interglacial. Moisture variations during the substages of MIS 5 in this region indicate cold-dry and warm-wet climatic characteristics. The reasons for increased moisture from late MIS 2 onwards in this region still require further investigation. (3) The loess-paleosol records indicate a consistent pattern of climate change over Eurasia on the scale of the last interglacial-glacial cycle. During the substages of MIS 5, warm-wet and cold-dry conditions in northern Iran were in-phase with those on the Chinese Loess Plateau, Europe, and southern Tajikistan; however, they were anti-phased or out-of-phase with those in Xinjiang.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20926,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary Science Reviews","volume":"354 ","pages":"Article 109213"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-02-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143395032","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Hao Li , Deke Xu , Yong Ge , Yongli Wang , Chang Li , Anning Cui , Yajie Dong , Xinxin Zuo , Can Wang , Naiqin Wu , Houyuan Lu
{"title":"Climate change was more important than human activity in late Holocene vegetation change on the southern Tibetan Plateau","authors":"Hao Li , Deke Xu , Yong Ge , Yongli Wang , Chang Li , Anning Cui , Yajie Dong , Xinxin Zuo , Can Wang , Naiqin Wu , Houyuan Lu","doi":"10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109245","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109245","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The Tibetan Plateau (TP) is one of the world's largest alpine grassland ecosystems, and it has been influenced by both climate change and human activities during the late Holocene. However, the dominant driver of vegetation change in these grasslands, whether climate change or human activity, remains controversial, particularly on the southern Tibetan Plateau (STP). Here, we present a high-resolution phytolith record from the STP, which reveals the relatively stable long-term grassland composition during the past ∼3,600 years. In addition, we used Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to investigate the relative importance of seven potential drivers of grassland change on the STP over the past ∼3,600 years: precipitation, temperature, atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub> concentration, fire, human influence index (HII), cultivation and pastoralism activity. The results indicate that precipitation was the most important driver of changes in grassland composition, whereas the effect of human activities was limited. While our findings highlight the significant role of climate change in driving changes in alpine grassland composition, the increasing influence of human activities should be considered in future assessments.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20926,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary Science Reviews","volume":"354 ","pages":"Article 109245"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-02-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143387907","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ling Tang , Weijian Zhou , Xisheng Wang , Feng Xian , Xianghui Kong , Yajuan Du , Jie Zhou , Guoqing Zhao , Yunchong Fu , Ning Chen
{"title":"10Be records of the Matuyama-Brunhes polarity reversal in the northeastern Chinese loess Plateau","authors":"Ling Tang , Weijian Zhou , Xisheng Wang , Feng Xian , Xianghui Kong , Yajuan Du , Jie Zhou , Guoqing Zhao , Yunchong Fu , Ning Chen","doi":"10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109212","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109212","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The precise stratigraphic position of the Matuyama-Brunhes (M-B) geomagnetic polarity reversal within Chinese loess sequences and its asynchrony with marine records have been long debated. This uncertainty limits our ability to establish a reliable geochronology for Chinese loess sequences and precise land-sea correlation of paleoclimate records. Here we present the high-resolution <sup>10</sup>Be results across the M-B boundary for the Fanshan loess profile in the northeastern Chinese Loess Plateau, for which previous high-stratigraphic-resolution paleomagnetic measurements failed to detect the exact position of the M-B boundary. A major enhancement of the <sup>10</sup>Be content (representing an increased atmospheric <sup>10</sup>Be production rate) in the upper part of paleosol S7 unambiguously represents the M-B boundary. The estimated age of 773 ± 3 ka for this boundary is consistent with <sup>10</sup>Be-inferred age of the M-B boundary in the EPICA Dome C ice core, marine sediment cores, and in the classic Luochuan loess sequence. These findings confirm the robustness of <sup>10</sup>Be in constraining geomagnetic reversals in Chinese loess sequences, after the effects of climate on <sup>10</sup>Be records have been successfully removed.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20926,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary Science Reviews","volume":"353 ","pages":"Article 109212"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-02-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143386983","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Yan-Xia Xue , Yao Wu , Chao-Jun Chen , Tao Fan , Huai Su , Han-Ying Li , Hai Cheng , Jian-Jun Yin , Jun-Yun Li , You-Feng Ning , Ting-Yong Li
{"title":"Stalagmite multi-proxy records reveal spatial complexity of precipitation and monsoon variability in China over past 60 years","authors":"Yan-Xia Xue , Yao Wu , Chao-Jun Chen , Tao Fan , Huai Su , Han-Ying Li , Hai Cheng , Jian-Jun Yin , Jun-Yun Li , You-Feng Ning , Ting-Yong Li","doi":"10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109240","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109240","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Debates surround the reliability of high-resolution stalagmite δ<sup>18</sup>O (δ<sup>18</sup>Oc) in indicating local precipitation, which complicates discussions about the variations and spatial distribution of precipitation in the Chinese monsoon region. Here, we present stalagmite multi-proxy records (δ<sup>18</sup>Oc, δ<sup>13</sup>Cc, Sr/Ca and Ba/Ca) from southwest China with annual resolution from 1959 to 2017 C.E. It is revealed that Asian summer monsoon (ASM) intensity, indicated by δ<sup>18</sup>Oc, shows in-phase variation with precipitation in southwest China on the interannual scale. El Niño-Southern Oscillation influences upstream convection and circulation to control variations in ASM intensity and regional precipitation. We used principal component analysis to extract the past 50 years of ASM variation and summer precipitation tripolar spatial pattern from 10 δ<sup>18</sup>Oc records. The first principal component revealed a continuous weakening of ASM intensity since 1959 due to global warming and increased El Niño activity. However, precipitation variation patterns and driving factors in southwestern China differ from those in eastern China, suggesting that the spatial distribution of precipitation in Chinese monsoon region is highly complex. Our study provides new insights into the complex relationship between the intensity of the ASM and precipitation in southwest China, offering valuable reference for reconstructing the spatial distribution of precipitation in Chinese monsoon region on longer timescales based on speleothem records.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20926,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary Science Reviews","volume":"353 ","pages":"Article 109240"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-02-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143378421","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Óscar R. Solís-Torres , Joaquín Arroyo-Cabrales , Patrick Roberts , Noel Amano
{"title":"A critical review of Late Pleistocene human-megafaunal interactions in Mexico","authors":"Óscar R. Solís-Torres , Joaquín Arroyo-Cabrales , Patrick Roberts , Noel Amano","doi":"10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109200","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109200","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The timing and cause(s) of megafaunal (animals with body mass >44 kg) extinctions during the Late Pleistocene remain a topic of significant multidisciplinary interest. Determining the ecological and evolutionary history of megafaunal communities requires a detailed study of chronology, climate change, environment, and human impact. While some regions of North America are well-studied in this regard, others, such as Mexico, have been more neglected. This is despite the fact that, by the end of the Pleistocene, the region had witnessed the extinction of fourteen families (Chlamyphoridae, Megalonychidae, Mylodontidae, Felidae, Canidae, Ursidae, Tapiridae, Antilocapridae, Bovidae, Cervidae, Gomphotheriidae, Mammutidae, Toxodontidae, Macrauchenidae) and the regional extirpation of a further four (Equidae, Camelidae, Elephantidae and Megatheriidae). Moreover, this region is located at a biotic crossroads and has yielded some of the earliest dates for human occupation across the Americas. This makes Mexico an important study region to explore the effects of human presence and climate change on a variety of megafaunal species. However, research has been hindered by an uneven balance of research, preservation issues, lack of chronological control, and limited synthesis of the available data. In this paper, we provide a critical review of the available records of Late Pleistocene megafauna in Mexico and their relationship to human populations. We evaluate the quality of dates and stratigraphic contexts of recorded megafauna on a site-by-site basis while also exploring available information on human presence and impact on megafauna. We highlight that currently, the human impact on the decline of these populations is far from clear and that more multidisciplinary excavations of well-dated sites are needed. Nevertheless, we contend that current evidence suggests that human hunting of megafauna occurred across most of the Mexican territory in a variety of habitats, with some evidence in the south that these hunts were complemented by significant acquisition of small game, aquatic species and plant foods.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20926,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary Science Reviews","volume":"353 ","pages":"Article 109200"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-02-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143386984","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Hansheng Wang , Tiantian Shen , Haoqi Chen , Xingwan Liu , Junsheng Nie
{"title":"Decoding climate cycles from the Red Clay sequence on the Chinese Loess Plateau","authors":"Hansheng Wang , Tiantian Shen , Haoqi Chen , Xingwan Liu , Junsheng Nie","doi":"10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109223","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109223","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The loess-Red Clay sequences on the Chinese Loess Plateau (CLP) are encoded with past variations of East Asian monsoons. In comparison with the loess sequence, the Red Clay sequence has lower dust accumulation rate, older depositional ages and was deposited in a warmer climate. These factors result in stronger degree of mineral oxidation, lower content of fine ferrimagnetic minerals and higher content of hematite. Therefore, magnetic parameters widely used in the loess sequence, such as magnetic susceptibility, may not be as effective in indicating past precipitation in the Red Clay sequence. It is notoriously well known that Red Clay lacks precessional cycles, the most obvious period dominating summer insolation. Here we explore the potential of “hard’’ isothermal remanent magnetization (HIRM), a parameter estimating hematite content, in recording past climatic changes in the Red Clay sequence. In contrast with the magnetic susceptibility record which only shows prominent 1 Myr and eccentricity cycles, the HIRM record shows all orbital and their harmonic cycles. Intriguingly, we also detected multiple millennial cycles from HIRM and found the amplitude variations of multiple millennial cycles are controlled by precession, obliquity, and their amplitude modulators. This work extends detecting of precession and multiple millennial cycles from the CLP deposits back to the late Miocene for the first time and revolutionize our thinking regarding how East Asian summer monsoons varied based on the CLP records for the late Miocene-Pliocene interval.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20926,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary Science Reviews","volume":"353 ","pages":"Article 109223"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-02-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143349209","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jos Kleijne , Harald Lübke , Daniel Groß , Klaus Bokelmann , John Meadows
{"title":"Temporal patterns in Mesolithic activity at Duvensee, Germany","authors":"Jos Kleijne , Harald Lübke , Daniel Groß , Klaus Bokelmann , John Meadows","doi":"10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109230","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109230","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The Duvensee peat bog is one of the best-known prehistoric landscapes in northern Europe, with hunter-gatherer activities located on small islands on the western edge of an Early Holocene lake. Excellent organic preservation, precise excavation, and rigorous radiocarbon sample selection permit the application of Bayesian chronological modelling. Over 250 radiocarbon results date a dozen Mesolithic sites to an extended period between the 9th and 7th millennia BCE. Each site may only have been used briefly – perhaps only for a single season in some cases – but some were used repeatedly over the course of decades or even centuries. Site chronological models reveal sharp fluctuations in the overall level of recorded Mesolithic activity. A spike in the intensity and diversity of activity coincided with the rapid expansion of hazel (<em>Corylus avellana</em>) at the start of the Boreal biozone, but a steep decline in dated activity in the later 9th millennium BCE may be an artefact of changes in lake level, rather than reflecting a response to vegetation change, climate deterioration or societal reconfiguration. Although the Duvensee radiocarbon results can be construed to support arguments that rapid climate change had a significant impact on human activity, known climate events occurred when the record of human occupation at Duvensee was already discontinuous. It is therefore difficult to infer (or exclude) environmental factors as triggers of changes in the archaeological record. Our results suggest focusing research on the early Boreal phase, during which the widest range of site-types is preserved and accessible for archaeological investigation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20926,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary Science Reviews","volume":"353 ","pages":"Article 109230"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-02-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143134421","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Hailin Zhong , Can Zhang , Jingjing Sun , Zhengyu Xia , Zicheng Yu , Cheng Zhao
{"title":"Mid-to-late Holocene temperature variability in southwestern China","authors":"Hailin Zhong , Can Zhang , Jingjing Sun , Zhengyu Xia , Zicheng Yu , Cheng Zhao","doi":"10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109231","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109231","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Southwestern China has been a significant area for human development during the mid-to-late Holocene, with human activities such as pastoralism, dairy farming, population migration, and population expansion being well documented. Climate change is considered a crucial factor that has influenced these developments. However, the overall pattern of temperature variations during this period remains unclear. Here we present a well-dated, high-resolution, quantitative temperature reconstruction based on a branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraether (brGDGT) proxy for the last ∼5000 years from a high-elevation peatland in southwestern China. Our record reveals a general warming trend during the mid-to-late Holocene. It also captures multicentennial-scale climate events, including the Medieval Warm Period (MWP) and the Little Ice Age (LIA). To better understand the pattern of mid-to-late Holocene temperature changes from existing paleoclimate records in southwestern China, we further compiled and analyzed 19 high-quality quantitative paleotemperature records in this region and the nearby Tibetan Plateau. The results reveal that temperature records from high-elevation sites (>3000 m above sea level) generally display an overall warming trend, whereas temperature records from low-elevation sites (<3000 m above sea level) generally show an overall cooling trend. We speculate that the reconstructed temperature records from low-elevation areas might be affected by human activities. In addition, we analyzed 9 records from a sub-region of southwestern China with adequate temporal-resolution and chronological controls to evaluate multicentennial-scale fluctuations over the past millennium. We find that most records show pronounced shifts during the MWP and LIA. Our results emphasized that human disturbances may affect the seasonal bias of reconstructed temperature, highlighting the necessity of carefully evaluating the effects of potential human influences on paleoclimate proxies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20926,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary Science Reviews","volume":"353 ","pages":"Article 109231"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-02-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143282723","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
C. Heredia , S. Guédron , A.T. Gourlan , B. Helly , H. Delile , L. Calzolari , S. Campillo , S. Santenac , L. Audin , P. Telouk , F. Albarede
{"title":"Provenance of lead ores used for water pipes production in the ancient Roman Gaul (Vienne, France)","authors":"C. Heredia , S. Guédron , A.T. Gourlan , B. Helly , H. Delile , L. Calzolari , S. Campillo , S. Santenac , L. Audin , P. Telouk , F. Albarede","doi":"10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109227","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109227","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The urban fabric of Roman cities developed through the installation of water supply networks, mainly made of lead (Pb). In Gaul, the city of Vienne (France) was central to the manufacturing of Pb artifacts, including large volumes of Pb water pipes. Although Pb artifacts were often labeled with Roman-period stamps indicating the location of manufacturing, our knowledge of the provenance of extracted Pb ore and the way they were imported remains limited. In this study, Roman-period artifacts were analyzed for Pb isotope signatures to document the source of Pb ore used in Vienne's manufactories. Lead isotope signatures were then compared with new local Pb ores data and an updated Pb isotope database using a new algorithm to identify the provenance of Pb. Results indicate that Pb used for artifact manufacturing at Vienne originates mainly from a single source. Data treatment with the new algorithm identifies the Rhenish Massif and the Pennines mining regions as the primary and most probable source, but some artifacts exhibit a similar isotope composition to that of local Pb ores. The similarity of the Pb isotopic signatures of the artifacts produced in Vienne with those of Mainz pipes and lead ingots from the Rhenish massif, as well as the synchronicity of the mining periods in this region, support the Rhenish Massif as the most likely source of Pb for Vienne. Finally, we propose the Rhine and Saone Rivers as the most probable Pb ores conveyance routes to Vienne during the Roman Period.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20926,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary Science Reviews","volume":"353 ","pages":"Article 109227"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-02-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143133646","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}