Holocene climate forcings on leaf wax hydrogen isotope records in the monsoon regions of China

Xinxin Wang; Xianyu Huang; Yixiao Xue; Jie Wu; Shucheng Xie

doi:10.59717/j.xinn-geo.2026.100180

The Innovation Geoscience > 2026 Vol. 4 > No. 1 > 100180

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Holocene climate forcings on leaf wax hydrogen isotope records in the monsoon regions of China

1.
State Key Laboratory for Vegetation Structure, Functions and Construction (VegLab), Institute of Palaeontology, Yunnan Key Laboratory of Earth System Science, Yunnan University, Kunming 650500, China
2.
State Key Laboratory of Geomicrobiology and Environmental Changes, Hubei Key Laboratory of Critical Zone Evolution, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430078, China

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Corresponding author: xyhuang@cug.edu.cn
Received Date: April 27, 2025

Accepted Date: September 23, 2025

Published Online: September 26, 2025

The Innovation Geoscience 4(1), https://doi.org/10.59717/j.xinn-geo.2026.100180 | Cite this article

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PUBLIC SUMMARY
1. PCA on the Holocene peat leaf wax δD records from the monsoon regions of China.
  
  PC1 linked to the water vapor source isotopes.
  
  PC2 and PC3 related to the El Nio-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and North Atlantic cooling, respectively.
  
  PC2 and PC3 mainly responsible for the spatial heterogeneity of precipitation.
  
  Moisture-sensitive biological effects likely differentiating leaf wax δD from stalagmite δ¹⁸O records.

ABSTRACT

ABSTRACT

The hydrogen isotopic compositions (δD) of leaf waxes have emerged as a pivotal paleohydrological proxy. However, their complex nature complicates paleoclimatic interpretations in the monsoon regions of China. To disentangle the controls, we performed principal component analysis (PCA) on Holocene leaf wax δD records from peat deposits across the monsoon regions of China, which reveals three dominant signals. The first principal component (PC1) strongly correlates with water vapor source isotopes. The second principal component (PC2) shows a close relationship with El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) mean state. The third principal component (PC3) is associated with North Atlantic cooling. Together, PC2 and PC3 mainly account for the spatiotemporal variations of precipitation in the monsoon regions of China. The PCA results highlight that while Northern hemisphere solar insolation provides the fundamental control, both high- and low-latitude climate systems modulate the isotopic signals. Moreover, these findings offer new insights into resolving the discrepancies between leaf wax δD and stalagmite δ¹⁸O records in the Asian monsoon regions during the Holocene. Given the observed covariation between PC1 and stalagmite δ¹⁸O records, we tentatively attribute the differences to moisture-dependent biological factors significantly affecting leaf wax δD.
- leaf wax δD /
- Asian monsoon /
- Holocene /
- peat /
- hydrology /
- PCA

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Wang X., Huang X., Xue Y., et al. (2026). Holocene climate forcings on leaf wax hydrogen isotope records in the monsoon regions of China. The Innovation Geoscience 4:100180. https://doi.org/10.59717/j.xinn-geo.2026.100180

Wang X., Huang X., Xue Y., et al. (2026). Holocene climate forcings on leaf wax hydrogen isotope records in the monsoon regions of China. The Innovation Geoscience 4:100180. https://doi.org/10.59717/j.xinn-geo.2026.100180

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Holocene climate forcings on leaf wax hydrogen isotope records in the monsoon regions of China

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Holocene climate forcings on leaf wax hydrogen isotope records in the monsoon regions of China

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