2026-10-15T10:29:06Z https://oai.datacite.org/oai

doi:10.1594/pangaea.139752 2026-08-08T03:28:02Z PANGAEA PANGAEA.REPOSITORY

Accumulation rates of plant-wax-derived long-chain C25 to C35 odd-numbered n-alkanes and δ¹³C values of the n-C31 alkane of ODP Hole 175-1077B Schefuß, Enno Schouten, Stefan Jansen, J H Fred Sinninghe Damsté, Jaap S PANGAEA 2004 Collected: 1997-08-30T11:30:00/1997-08-31T04:55:00 doi:10.1038/nature01500 DEPTH, sediment/rock AGE Depth, composite Sample code/label Accumulation rate, mass Sum n-alkanes C25-C35 Sum odd numbered n-alkanes C25-C35 Average chain length, n-Alkanes n-Alkanes, C31/(C29+C31) ratio Carbon Preference Index, n-alkanes (C25-C33) n-Alkanes C25-C35, flux Sum odd numbered n-alkanes C25-C35, flux n-Alkane C29, δ13C n-Alkane C4 plant, reference to C29 n-Alkane C31, δ13C n-Alkane C4 plant, reference to C31 Drilling/drill rig Intercore correlation DSDP/ODP/IODP sample designation Calculated, see reference(s) Gas chromatography - Mass spectrometry (GC-MS) Leg175 Joides Resolution Geosciences, University of Bremen (GeoB) Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) The dominant forcing factors for past large-scale changes in vegetation are widely debated. Changes in the distribution of C4 plants-adapted to warm, dry conditions and low atmospheric CO2 concentrations (Collatz et al., 1998, doi:10.1007/s004420050468) -have been attributed to marked changes in environmental conditions, but the relative impacts of changes in aridity, temperature (Pagani et al., 1999, doi:10.1126/science.285.5429.876; Huang et al., 2001, doi:10.1126/science.1060143) and CO2 concentration (Cerling et al., 1993, doi:10.1038/361344a0; Kuypers et al., 1999, doi:10.1038/20659) are not well understood. Here, we present a record of African C4 plant abundance between 1.2 and 0.45 million years ago, derived from compound-specific carbon isotope analyses of wind-transported terrigenous plant waxes. We find that large-scale changes in African vegetation are linked closely to sea surface temperatures in the tropical Atlantic Ocean. We conclude that, in the mid-Pleistocene, changes in atmospheric moisture content - driven by tropical sea surface temperature changes and the strength of the African monsoon - controlled aridity on the African continent, and hence large-scale vegetation changes. mcd-scale after Jansen & Dupont (2001, doi:10.2973/odp.proc.sr.175.236.2001), Age after Dupont et al. (2001, doi:10.1130/0091-7613(2001)029<0195:MPECIT>2.0.CO;2) Supplement to: Schefuß, Enno; Schouten, Stefan; Jansen, J H Fred; Sinninghe Damsté, Jaap S (2003): African vegetation controlled by tropical sea surface temperatures in the mid-Pleistocene period. Nature, 422(6930), 418-421 en Dataset Supplementary Dataset text/tab-separated-values Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode