Stable carbon isotopes of woods during carbonization and their correlation with climatic factors

Fan Luo; Nan Sun; Xiabo Li; Junfeng Guo; Liang Xiao; Peng Lei

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0270133

Stable carbon isotopes of woods during carbonization and their correlation with climatic factors

PLoS One. 2022 Oct 20;17(10):e0270133. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0270133. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Fan Luo¹, Nan Sun^{1

2}, Xiabo Li¹, Junfeng Guo¹, Liang Xiao¹, Peng Lei³

Affiliations

¹ School of Earth Science and Resources, Chang'an University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China.
² Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Early Life and Environments, Northwest University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China.
³ Shaanxi Branch of China National Geological Exploration Center of Building Materials Industry, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China.

Abstract

To explore the applicability of the carbon isotope composition (δ13C) of fossil charcoal for the quantitative reconstruction of paleoclimates, we selected five points in Shaanxi province, from north to south, to collect modern Pinus species and Quercus species to sample covering areas with obvious climatic differences. In order to reveal the relationships between δ13C of charcoal and climate variables on the basis of carbonization experiments, we evaluated the fractionation mechanism of δ13C of charcoal, and compared the differences between δ13C of charcoal in wildfire experiments and indoor experiments regarding genera and species. The results showed significant differences in δ13C between genera but no significant differences among species. Additionally, the δ13C of charcoal was significantly negatively correlated with precipitation and positively correlated with evaporation, which could be determined from δ13C values in the study area to reconstruct ancient precipitation and evaporation in the future.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Carbon
Carbon Isotopes / analysis
Charcoal*
Climate
Environment
Wood* / chemistry

Substances

Carbon Isotopes
Charcoal
Carbon

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41672156, 41872017); Natural Science Basic Research Plan in Shaanxi Province of China (No. 2022JM-170); Special Fund for Basic Scientific Research of Central Colleges, Chang’an University, China (No. 300102272901, 300102271402). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.