RETRIEVING PALEOENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION FROM LOESS DEPOSITS IN CHINA WITH A MULTIPROXY APPROACH

Succession of loess deposits is one of the most complete geological archives which contain rich information on terrestrial environmental changes for the last several million years. Reconstruction of the regional paleoenvironment can be achieved by the use of physical, chemical or biological proxies obtained from the loess deposits. However, the retrieval and interpretation of the paleosignals which have clear association with regional environmental changes are not straightforward. The inferred climate variability is sometimes found to display inconsistency depending on the proxies used. This is particularly true when the amplitude of the climate change is considered. Here we present a multiproxy study on loess deposits from different parts of the Loess Plateau in China. Downcore variations of magnetic, sedimentological and mineralogical measurements are compared and implications of the results based on individual proxies are discussed.