Changes in terrestrial ecosystem since 30 Ma in East Asia: Stable isotope evidence from black carbon in the South China Sea
- 1 State Key Laboratory of Organic Geochemistry, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China
- 2 Laboratory of Marine Geology, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
Abstract
A 30 m.y. stable isotopic record of marine-deposited black carbon from regional terrestrial biomass burning from the northern South China Sea reveals photosynthetic pathway evolution for terrestrial ecosystems in the late Cenozoic. This record indicates that C3 plants negatively adjusted their isotopic discrimination and C4 plants appeared gradually as a component of land vegetation in East Asia since the early Miocene, a long time before sudden C4 expansion occurred during the late Miocene to the Pliocene. The changes in terrestrial ecosystems with time can be reasonably related to the evolution of East Asian monsoons, which are thought to have been induced by several intricate mechanisms during the late Cenozoic and could contribute significantly to the post-Miocene marine carbonate isotope decline.
Footnotes
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↵GSA Data Repository item 2003162, Table DR1, downcore content and isotopic composition of black carbon, is available online at www.geosociety.org/pubs/ ft2003.htm or on request from editinggeosociety.org or Document Secretary, GSA, P.O. Box 9140, Boulder, CO 80301-9140, USA.
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- Accepted August 14, 2003.
- Received July 2, 2003.
- Revision received August 11, 2003.
- Geological Society of America
