干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

Recent chronological studies have revealed significant site-specific variations in loess sedimentation, which challenge the use of loess deposits as continuous, easily analyzable paleoclimate and dust records. However, the regional comparability of loess sedimentation at subglacial-interglacial time scales has not yet been systematically tested. This study focused on the spatial and temporal variability of loess sedimentation on the Chinese Loess Plateau (CLP) during the last 20 thousand years and found a clear seesaw pattern across the CLP, indicated by rapid dust accumulation at the desert margin and reduced accumulation/less preservation on the main part of the CLP after ca. 15 ka. This spatial inhomogeneity of loess sedimentation at millennial time scales is controlled by various dust transportation, trapping, and postdepositional processes in different geographic settings, which are ultimately attributed to a combined effect of a weakened winter monsoon and enhanced summer monsoon after the termination of Heinrich event 1.