• journal_title：Geology
• Contributor：An Zhisheng ; Huang Yongsong ; Liu Weiguo ; Guo Zhengtang ; Steven Clemens ; Li Li ; Warren Prell ; Ning Youfeng ; Cai Yanjun ; Zhou Weijian ; Lin Benhai ; Zhang Qingle ; Cao Yunning ; Qiang Xiaoke ; Chang Hong ; Wu Zhenkun
• Publisher：Geological Society of America
• Date：2005-
• Format：text/html
• Language：en
• Identifier：10.1130/G21423.1
• journal_abbrev：Geology
• issn：0091-7613
• volume：33
• issue：9
• firstpage：705

The expansion of plants using the C₄ photosynthetic pathway is one of the most prominent changes in the global ecosystem during the Cenozoic Era. A significant late Miocene expansion is well documented. However, the existence and cause of subsequent expansions are still not clear, owing in part to the lack of long, continuous climate-vegetation records. Here we present two high-resolution carbon isotope time series, covering the past 7 m.y., derived from eolian deposits on the Chinese Loess Plateau. The data indicate three intervals of significant C₄ plant expansions within the semiarid monsoonal region of East Asia (ca. 2.9–2.7 Ma, 1.3–0.9 Ma, and 0.6 Ma–present). These expansions covary with strengthened East Asian summer monsoon circulation. We conclude that in East Asia, large-scale late Miocene C₄/C₃ vegetation changes in semiarid areas have been primarily driven by warm seasonal precipitation and temperature variations associated with changes in monsoon circulation.