Lack of correlation between paleoprecipitation and magnetic susceptibility of Chinese loess/paleosol sequences

We have conducted a detailed mineral magnetic study of loess unit 8 (L8) and paleosol unit 8 (S8) from three localities (Jingbian, Yichuan, and Duanjiapo) along a N-S transect in the Chinese loess plateau. As expected, the low-field magnetic susceptibility (X) has higher values in S8 and lower values in L8. Similarly, superparamagnetic particle concentrations increase in S8 with increasingly humid climates along the N-S transect, which suggests that pedogenic magnetic enhancement is related to climate. However, in S8 at Duanjiapo, X is so low that there is no correlation between X and the degree of pedogenesis in this loess-paleosol cycle. It therefore appears that X is not consistently the most suitable indicator of paleoclimate in Chinese loess-paleosol sequences. Our results indicate that there are complexities in the mineral magnetic response to pedogenesis, which could invalidate interpretation of the X record of Chinese loess-paleosol sequences in terms of paleoprecipitation.