Climatic dependency of soil organic carbon isotopic composition along the S–N Transect from 34°N to 52°N in central-east Asia

We explored the relationships between surface-soil (1–20 cm) organic carbon isotopic signatures and associated climatic factors in central-east Asia in an attempt to develop transfer functions that can be used to retrieve the paleoclimatic information stored in the thick eolian–paleosol sequences within the area. Our analysis shows that the negative correlation between the surface-soil organic δ13C values and the mean annual precipitation is robust (R2 = 0.453; n = 196; p < 0.05) and the negative correlation with the growing-season (April–September) precipitation is more significant (R2 = 0.4966; n = 196; p < 0.05). Our study further shows that the positive correlation between the surface-soil organic δ13C values and mean growing-season aridity is most significant (R2 = 0.5805; n = 196; p < 0.05). We have smoothed both the organic δ13C values and the mean growing-season aridity values using a 3-point moving-window average-filter method in an attempt to remove some of random errors and found that the positive correlation between the two is further increased (R2 =  0.7784; n =  192; p < 0.05). These robust linear relationships demonstrate their value in reconstructing paleoclimate changes in the study area. The documented climatic dependency of the surface-soil carbon isotopic composition in the study area might have resulted both from the humidity-related isotopic enrichment processes of the dominant C3 plants (stomatal conductance and photosynthetic discrimination) and from the aridity-related abundance of C4 plants (mainly Chenopodiaceae species) along the S–N bioclimatic gradient.