Elsevier

Quaternary International

Volume 613, 10 March 2022, Pages 1-13
Quaternary International

Astronomical forcing of vegetation and climate change during the Late Pliocene–Early Pleistocene of the Nihewan Basin, North China

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2021.07.017Get rights and content

Abstract

The Late Pliocene–Early Pleistocene is an important transitional period in the Cenozoic evolution of global climate and environment. Previously, we demonstrated the occurrence of distinct cycles in vegetation and climate in the Nihewan Basin, during 2.89–1.78 Ma. However, the specific cycles and their forcing mechanisms were not studied more in-depth. Here we present the results of wavelet and spectral analyses of pollen percentages (Picea, Pinus, xerophytic taxa and broadleaved trees), macro-charcoal concentration, clay % and sand %, and magnetic susceptibility of 340 samples from the NHA drill core in the Nihewan Basin, during 2.89–1.78 Ma. The results reveal dominant ~20-kyr and ~40-kyr cyclicities: the pollen percentages of Pinus and broadleaved trees, magnetic susceptibility, and clay %, indicating a warm and humid climate, are more significantly influenced by ~20-kyr; in contrast, the percentages of Picea and xerophytic taxa, macro-charcoal concentration, and sand %, associated with a cold and dry climate, are mainly influenced by ~40-kyr. The ~20-kyr and ~40-kyr cycles corresponding to the dominant cycles of the East Asian summer monsoon and winter monsoon, which are respectively driven by Earth orbital precession and tilt, indicating that vegetation and climate change in the Nihewan Basin during 2.89–1.78 Ma was forced by a combination of low- and high-latitude processes. Otherwise, most of the proxy indexes also show a pronounced ~100-kyr cycle, which may be a response to changes in Northern Hemisphere ice sheets, emphasizing the importance of high-latitude forcing of vegetation and climate change in the Nihewan Basin.

Introduction

The Late Pliocene–Early Pleistocene transition is an important interval in the evolution of Northern Hemisphere ice sheets (NHIS) (Zachos et al., 2001, 2008; Maslin et al., 1996, 1998; Hennissen et al., 2015). Significant environmental and climate changes occurred worldwide during this interval (Leinen and Heath, 1981; Lisiecki and Raymo, 2007; Lawrence et al., 2010). Additionally, the global climate system commenced a period of pronounced glacial-interglacial cyclicity (Haug et al., 2005; Bartoli et al., 2005; Rohling et al., 2014), a long-term cooling trend developed, the amplitude of glacial cycles increased, and the modern global climate regime began to be established (Lawrence et al., 2010; Rohling et al., 2014; Hennissen et al., 2015). The Late Pliocene–Early Pleistocene transition has been investigated using archives such as deep-sea sediments, loess-paleosol sequences, and fluviolacustrine deposits, and substantial progress has been made in its characterization and evaluation (e.g., DeMenocal, 1995, 2004; Marlow et al., 2000; An et al., 2001; Haug et al., 2005; Sun et al., 2006, 2010; Zachos et al., 2008; Etourneau et al., 2010; Yang and Ding, 2010; Rohling et al., 2014; Hennissen et al., 2015; Zan et al., 2018; Li et al., 2019).

Most of the work on the Late Pliocene–Early Pleistocene transition has focused on its environmental characteristics and related processes, such as climate and vegetation change. However, less research has been conducted on the cyclicities associated with environmental changes and their forcing mechanisms. The traditional view is that the global climate was dominated by a stable ~40-kyr cycle since the Late Pliocene and that the Pliocene–Pleistocene transition was a component of the “41-kyr world” (~3.0–0.8 Ma) (Raymo and Nisancioglu, 2003). However, it has also been shown that global climate change during the Pliocene–Pleistocene was controlled not only by the tilt cycle (~40-kyr), but also by the precession cycle (~20-kyr) (Shackleton et al., 1990; Lisiecki and Raymo, 2007; Liautaud et al., 2020). For example, benthic δ18O records from IODP Sites U1308 and U1313 in the North Atlantic (Hodell and Channell, 2016; Liautaud et al., 2020), dust flux records from ODP Site 721/722 in the Northern Indian Ocean (DeMenocal, 1995, 2004, 2004; Martínez-Garcia et al., 2010), planktonic foraminiferal δ18O and δ13C records from ODP Site 1143 in the southern South China Sea (Tian et al., 2002; 2004; 2005), a sedimentary record of K/Si ratios (Wehausen and Brumsack, 2002) and pollen records from ODP Site 1145 in the northern South China Sea (Luo and Sun, 2013), and grain size and magnetic susceptibility records from loess-paleosol sequences in the Chinese Loess Plateau (Ding et al., 1994; Liu and Ding, 1998; Sun et al., 2006, 2010,), have all demonstrated that in addition to the ~40-kyr tilt cycle, the ~20-kyr precession cycle was also prominent during the Late Pliocene–Early Pleistocene transition. Furthermore, sapropel sequences from the Mediterranean (Hilgen, 1991) and dust flux records since 5 Ma from ODP Site 659 the tropical Atlantic (Tiedemann et al., 1994), influenced by the African monsoon, suggest that the ~20-kyr precession cycle was the dominant Earth orbital cycle during the Pliocene–Pleistocene. In addition, several studies have suggested that climate change during the Pliocene–Pleistocene was characterized by multiple cycles. For example, records of grain size from the Baoji section (Ding et al., 1994; Liu and Ding, 1998) and magnetic susceptibility and carbonate content of the Lingtai section (Sun et al., 2006, 2010, 2010), in the Chinese Loess Plateau, demonstrate the presence of significant 400-kyr and 55-kyr cycles, in addition to 41-kyr and 23-kyr cycles, during the Pliocene–Pleistocene.

In summary, several viewpoints exist regarding the character and origin of climatic cyclicities during the Pliocene–Pleistocene, and previous research has focused on deep-sea sediments and loess-paleosol sequences from the Chinese Loess Plateau. However, high-resolution sedimentary records from other archives are sparse due to the lack of temporal length and continuity, which limits our understanding of climatic cyclicities during the Pliocene–Pleistocene. Moreover, research on the Pliocene–Pleistocene from a wide range of terrestrial locations is essential for understanding the processes and forcing mechanisms of regional climate changes, as well as for understanding the relationship between Earth orbital parameters and the global climate. And it is also a prerequisite for understanding the development of modern regional and global environmental systems.

The Nihewan Basin is infilled with a thick fluviolacustrine sedimentary sequence called the Nihewan Beds (Barbour, 1924), or the Nihewan Formation (Yuan et al., 1996; Deng et al., 2008), which are of Plio–Pleistocene age, based on biostratigraphy and magnetostratigraphy (Teilhard de Chardin and Piveteau, 1930; Zhou et al., 1991; Zhu et al., 2004; Deng et al., 2008, 2019, 2019; Liu et al., 2018). The fluviolacustrine sequences in the Nihewan Basin are important terrestrial archives of paleoclimate and paleoenvironment and the area also contains numerous Paleolithic sites and thus it is an important information source on early human occupation in the eastern Old World(;Zhu et al. (2004); Deng et al. (2008), 2019; Yang et al., (2020). Our research group has conducted a preliminary characterization of the climate and vegetation during the interval of 2.89–1.78 Ma in the Nihewan Basin (Li et al., 2018, 2019; Ding et al., 2020; Zhang et al., 2020). However, the specific cycles of vegetation and climate changes in the Nihewan Basin, and their forcing mechanisms, have not been studied in depth.

Here, we present the results wavelet and spectral analyses of our previously published pollen dataset (comprising the percentages of Picea, Pinus, xerophytic taxa and broadleaved trees, which are relatively abundant and have clear ecological significance), spanning the Late Pliocene–Early Pleistocene transition (2.89–1.78 Ma) in core NHA from the Nihewan Basin (Li et al., 2018, 2019; Ding et al., 2020). We also conducted wavelet and spectral analyses on the records of macro-charcoal (>125 μm) concentration, low-frequency magnetic susceptibility (χfl), and the clay (<4 μm) % and sand (>63 μm) % contents of the same samples. Our aims were to identify the dominant cyclicities in these multiple climate proxies, which would enable us to verify the results and to explore the driving mechanisms of vegetation and climate change in the Nihewan Basin during the Pliocene–Pleistocene transition. We hoped that the results would also provide an environmental context for understanding the evolution and expansion of Early Pleistocene hominids in the Nihewan Basin, as well as in the middle–high latitudes of East Asia.

Section snippets

Environmental setting

The Nihewan Basin (40°05′–40°20′N, 114°25′–114°44′E) is located in the transitional zone between the North China Plain and the Inner Mongolia Plateau in northern China. The basin is surrounded by the Xiong'er Mountains to the north, the Liuleng Mountains to the south, and the Fenghuang Mountains to the east (Fig. 1). The total area of the basin is ~2000 km2 and the average elevation is ~1000 m. The Nihewan Basin experiences an East Asian continental monsoon climate; the climate is dry and the

Pollen and spore extraction and identification

Pollen and spores were concentrated using a modified HCL–NaOH–HF procedure (Faegri and Iversen, 1989). For each sample, 50 g of sediment was weighed before chemical treatment and one tablet of Lycopodium spores (27,560 grains/tablet) was added to calculate the pollen concentration. After chemical treatment, pollen and spores were extracted using heavy liquid (2.0 g/cm3) flotation. The procedures were carried out at the College of Resources and Environmental Sciences of Hebei Normal University.

Wavelet and spectral characteristics of the major pollen types in the NHA drill core

Ninety-nine pollen types were identified within the 340 pollen samples from the NHA drill core, including 27 arboreal pollen types, 16 shrub pollen types, 43 herb pollen types, and 13 fern spore types. A total of 162,261 pollen and spores were counted (excluding algae), and an average of 345 pollen and spores were counted for each sample, with an average concentration of 782 grains/g. The results of pollen analysis of Plio–Pleistocene sediments from the Nihewan Basin show that Pinus dominates

Origin of ~20-kyr cyclicity in the Nihewan Basin

The results presented in Section 4 show that the ~20-kyr cyclicity is the most significant during the interval of 2.89–1.78 Ma in the Nihewan Basin. Except for the sand %, the statistical significance of the results for all of the proxy indexes exceed 90 %. The most significant ~20-kyr cyclicity is recorded by the pollen percentages of Pinus and broadleaved trees, χlf, and clay % (Figs. 6 and 8). A shared characteristic of these proxies is that they likely reflect a warm and humid environment.

Conclusions

(1) During the Pliocene–Pleistocene transition (2.89–1.78 Ma), records of the pollen percentages of Picea, Pinus, xerophytic taxa and broadleaved trees; macro-charcoal concentration; clay % and sand %; and magnetic susceptibility in the Nihewan Basin demonstrate significant ~20-kyr and ~40-kyr cyclicities. We regard them as corresponding to the dominant cycles of the East Asian summer monsoon and winter monsoon, which are respectively driven by Earth orbital precession and tilt.

(2) There are

Author contributions

Zhen Zhang: Conceptualization, Writing - Original Draft and Review, Visualization. Yuecong Li: Conceptualization, Writing - Review and Editing, Funding acquisition. Guoqiang Ding: Validation and Formal analysis. Baoshuo Fan: Software. Shuoqiang Da: Investigation. Qinghai Xu: Methodology. Yong Wang: Resources, Data Curation. Zhenqing Chi: Investigation. Jin Dong: Methodology. Chaofei Liu: Software. Lei Zhang: Writing - Review and Editing.

Data availability

The data used to support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41877433, U20A20116, 41472157), and the Hebei Natural Science Foundation and Key Basic Research (18963301D). We thank Dr. Jan Bloemendal for improving the English language.

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