Validation and application of a thermal–optical reflectance (TOR) method for measuring black carbon in loess sediments

Three techniques were used to measure black carbon (BC) in samples from Chinese loess-paleosol sequences. The results obtained by (1) chemo-thermal oxidation (CTO, performed two ways), (2) acid dichromate oxidation (Cr2O7), and (3) thermal–optical reflectance (TOR) were intercompared because prior studies have shown that the methods can yield disparate results. BC concentrations did vary among the methods, most likely because they measured different components of the BC continuum, but the high-temperature BC (soot) determined by CTO was correlated with the BC and soot obtained by TOR. The CTO and TOR methods both yielded statistically significant linear relationships for loess and lake sediments that had incremental additions of a standard (SRM-1649a). The results also showed that charred material was more abundant in these test sediments than soot carbon. Data for BC in Luochuan loess generated using TOR showed a trend similar to that of magnetic susceptibility, that is, high BC and large susceptibilities during the last interglacial and low values for both variables in the last glacial. The results thus indicate that the TOR method is well suited for studies of sedimentary materials and that more biomass burned during the last interglacial than in the last glacial.

► BC concentrations in the loess samples did vary among the three techniques.
► Additions of SRM-1649a showed CTO and TOR both yielded good linear correlations.
► The trend of BC in Luochuan section by TOR was similar to that of susceptibility.
► High BC happened during the last interglacial and low values in the last glacial.