Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Variation of soil magnetism across the Russian steppe: its significance for use of soil magnetism as a palaeorainfall proxy.
AU - Maher, Barbara A.
AU - Alekseev, A.
AU - Alekseeva, T.
PY - 2002/8
Y1 - 2002/8
N2 - Modern soils across the Chinese Loess Plateau exhibit strong but disputed correlation between their pedogenic magnetic content and annual rainfall. A soil magnetism/rainfall transfer function could provide a quantitative proxy of Quaternary rainfall for this region. However, some argue that �magnetic dilution�, through spatially varying fluxes of weakly magnetic dust, controls the soil magnetic properties. Here, we test the soil magnetism/rainfall couple by examining 22 Russian steppe soils (free of present dust accumulation) across a climatic transect. From the semi-arid Caspian region to the more humid Caucasus, the soils display systematic increases in topsoil ferrimagnetic concentrations. With the exception of climate (and its co-variant, vegetation), soil-forming factors are essentially constant across this stable area. Hence, the soil magnetic variations dominantly reflect climate and from statistical analysis, principally rainfall. Further, the Russian steppe magnetic/rainfall relationship matches that observed for the Chinese Loess Plateau. These independent data thus substantiate the soil magnetism/rainfall climofunction and, by inference, eliminate �dust dilution� as a significant magnetic factor.
AB - Modern soils across the Chinese Loess Plateau exhibit strong but disputed correlation between their pedogenic magnetic content and annual rainfall. A soil magnetism/rainfall transfer function could provide a quantitative proxy of Quaternary rainfall for this region. However, some argue that �magnetic dilution�, through spatially varying fluxes of weakly magnetic dust, controls the soil magnetic properties. Here, we test the soil magnetism/rainfall couple by examining 22 Russian steppe soils (free of present dust accumulation) across a climatic transect. From the semi-arid Caspian region to the more humid Caucasus, the soils display systematic increases in topsoil ferrimagnetic concentrations. With the exception of climate (and its co-variant, vegetation), soil-forming factors are essentially constant across this stable area. Hence, the soil magnetic variations dominantly reflect climate and from statistical analysis, principally rainfall. Further, the Russian steppe magnetic/rainfall relationship matches that observed for the Chinese Loess Plateau. These independent data thus substantiate the soil magnetism/rainfall climofunction and, by inference, eliminate �dust dilution� as a significant magnetic factor.
KW - soil magnetism
KW - palaeoclimate proxy
KW - Holocene
KW - Quaternary
KW - palaeorainfall
KW - modern soils
U2 - 10.1016/S0277-3791(02)00022-7
DO - 10.1016/S0277-3791(02)00022-7
M3 - Journal article
VL - 21
SP - 1571
EP - 1576
JO - Quaternary Science Reviews
JF - Quaternary Science Reviews
SN - 0277-3791
IS - 14-15
ER -