Abstract
Purpose
Soils develop via a complex interaction of time, environment, climate, and human activity. As a proxy for paleoclimate reconstruction, soils have received less attention than other geological systems, and the limited attention was concentrated in loess sequences. Fluvisols form a subrecent natural archive that documents mid-term pedogenic processes and environmental change in floodplains. We investigated the pedological characteristics and pedogenesis of fluvisols in the Bei**g region and presented a Late Holocene paleoenvironmental reconstruction based on it.
Methods
We applied the radiocarbon dating method to investigate soil formation in the floodplain of the North Canal in Bei**g’s southeast suburbs. Soil morphology, soil texture, and environmental physical–chemical indicators (calcium carbonate, organic matter, total phosphorus, and total potassium) were selected for comprehensive analysis.
Results and discussion
Thorough integrated interpretation of soil development processes in the fluvisols sequence revealed regional paleoenvironmental and climatic developments. The paleoclimate of Bei**g underwent a transition from warm and humid to temperate and dry, as well as multiple cold fluctuations. Multiple humic burial horizons in the fluvisol sequence were overlain by a mineral soil horizon with weak soil formation, indicating that fluvic geology processes interrupted the process of the fluvisol formation, corresponding to cold-dry fluctuations in a warm-humid paleoclimatic context in Bei**g floodplain. There is a correlation between paleoclimatic environmental conditions and soil texture, organic matter, calcium carbonate, and other physical and chemical properties in the soil chronology.
Conclusions
As an emerging paleoenvironmental proxy, the geological process and soil-forming process of fluvisols inferred from soil properties can reconstruct the variation of paleoclimatic-environmental conditions. Fluvisol sequence build-up and illuviated accumulation of mineral material in the soil complex were more pronounced in warm and humid climatic conditions. Millennia of farming practices dominate the development of the uppermost fluvisols. Environmental reconstruction based on fluvisol soil properties is complementary to reconstruction drawing on other prevalent paleoclimate proxies. Fluvisol characterisation allows to disentangle gradual paleoenvironmental developments, including changes of climate, vegetation, and topography.
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Data availability
The dataset used in this study will be made available upon request to the corresponding author.
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Acknowledgements
We thank three anonymous reviewers for their careful and kind comments and advice.
Funding
This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 42277044) and the Joint Funds of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. U2243236).
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Liang, J., Zhao, Y., Song, M. et al. Late holocene soil evolution and environment change in the southeast suburbs of Bei**g, China. J Soils Sediments 24, 1165–1180 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-023-03707-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-023-03707-4