Articles | Volume 11, issue 23
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-11-6755-2014
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-11-6755-2014
Research article
 | 
08 Dec 2014
Research article |  | 08 Dec 2014

Dependence of the cyclization of branched tetraethers on soil moisture in alkaline soils from arid–subhumid China: implications for palaeorainfall reconstructions on the Chinese Loess Plateau

H. Wang, W. Liu, and C. L. Zhang

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Short summary
The relationships between environmental variables and the cyclization of branched tetraethers (CBT) were investigated in surface soils in the Chinese Loess Plateau (CLP) and its vicinity. We find that CBT is not sensitive to soil pH but correlates best with soil moisture in these alkaline soils from arid-subhumid regions. Therefore, we suggest that CBT can potentially be used as a palaeorainfall proxy on the CLP and applied it to three loess-paleosol sequences published before.
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