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Journal of Arid Land
Journal of Arid Land  2026, Vol. 18 Issue (5): 793-810    DOI: 10.1016/j.jaridl.2026.05.004     CSTR: 32276.14.JAL.20250647
Research article     
Provenance of the iron hypothesis: Guidance from multiproxy analysis of surface sediments at the southern margin of the Taklimakan Desert, China
MA Xueyang1,*(), GUO Benhong2, ZHANG Xiaonan3, ZHANG Yuzhi4
1 College of Environmental Science and Engineering, China West Normal University, Nanchong 637009, China
2 School of Earth Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
3 Yunnan Key Laboratory of Ecological Protection and Resource Utilization of River-Lake Networks, Institute for Ecological Research and Pollution Control of Plateau Lakes, School of Ecology and Environmental Science, Yunnan University, Kunming 650500, China
4 College of Resources and Environment, Shanxi University of Finance and Economics, Taiyuan 030006, China
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Abstract  

The Taklimakan Desert plays an important role in understanding the provenance of the iron hypothesis, which posits that iron availability limits phytoplankton growth in oceans. However, the modern processes governing iron provenance in mountain-desert transition areas remain largely unknown. To address this issue, this study systematically sampled surface sediments along an east-west transect in the Kunlun-Altun piedmont, and analyzed their grain sizes, magnetic susceptibility, total organic carbon (TOC) content, total nitrogen (TN) content, X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectra, and major elements. The grain size distributions (GSDs) at low (<2000 m a.s.l.) and high (>2000 m a.s.l.) altitudes suggested that surface sediments originated from the Kunlun-Altun Mountains, and each exhibited distinct sediment reworking and transport histories. Low chemical index of alteration (CIA) values (<65.00) confirmed that physical weathering was the predominant process and that limited chemical alteration occurred, with the preservation of provenance signatures from the Kunlun-Altun lithologies. Therefore, in the surface sediments, weakly magnetic ferrous ion (Fe2+)-bearing biotite served as the primary iron source. Aeolian transport (relatively fine component), TOC, and the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) served as key constraints on iron source dynamics. This study revealed the mineralogical form and influencing constraints of iron sources in the surface sediments derived from the northern Qinghai-Xizang Plateau, providing insights for distinguishing iron sources of the iron hypothesis in paleoclimate proxies.

Key words： iron source      aeolian transport      geochemistry      chemical index of alteration (CIA)      magnetic susceptibility      Kunlun-Altun Mountains     
Received: 20 December 2025      Published: 31 May 2026
Corresponding Authors: *MA Xueyang (E-mail: xyma2018@cwnu.edu.cn)
About author: Author contributions

Conceptualization: MA Xueyang, GUO Benhong; Data curation: MA Xueyang, ZHANG Xiaonan; Formal analysis: MA Xueyang, ZHANG Xiaonan; Funding acquisition: MA Xueyang, GUO Benhong, ZHANG Xiaonan, ZHANG Yizhi; Investigation: MA Xueyang; Methodology: MA Xueyang, GUO Benhong, ZHANG Xiaonan; Project administration: MA Xueyang; Resources: MA Xueyang, ZHANG Xiaonan; Software: MA Xueyang, ZHANG Xiaonan; Supervision: MA Xueyang, GUO Benhong; Validation: MA Xueyang; Visualization: MA Xueyang; Writing - original draft preparation: MA Xueyang; Writing - review and editing: MA Xueyang, GUO Benhong. All authors approved the manuscript.

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MA Xueyang, GUO Benhong, ZHANG Xiaonan, ZHANG Yuzhi. Provenance of the iron hypothesis: Guidance from multiproxy analysis of surface sediments at the southern margin of the Taklimakan Desert, China. Journal of Arid Land, 2026, 18(5): 793-810.

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http://jal.xjegi.com/10.1016/j.jaridl.2026.05.004     OR     http://jal.xjegi.com/Y2026/V18/I5/793

Fig. 1 Overview of the Taklimakan Desert. (a), locations of 28 surface sediment sampling site (solid circles, numbered from 1 to 28), the dominant circulation systems (white arrows) of westerly and East Asian Winter Monsoon (EAWM), and meteorological stations (solid triangles); (b), seasonal rivers in the piedmont belt of the Kunlun-Altun Mountains; (c), typical geomorphological environment at sampling site.
Fig. 2 Air temperature (a) and precipitation at 6-h intervals (b) at meteorological stations in the Taklimakan Desert in 2000. Data were sourced from the National Climatic Data Center (ftp://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/noaa/isd-lite/), and only data from 2000 were selected under the consideration of comprehensive data for all meteorological stations.
Fig. 3 Plot of the grain size distributions (GSDs) of samples at different altitudes (a) and change in the agglomeration coefficient versus the number of clusters for the grain size (b). The red dot indicates the knee, which denotes the suitable number of end members (EMs).
Fig. 4 Plot of the GSDs of EMs (a) and variation in the EM contribution with longitude for the surface sediments (b). EM1, end member 1; EM2, end member 2; EM3, end member 3.
Fig. 5 Magnetic parameter distributions along the west-east transect. (a), low-frequency mass-specific magnetic susceptibility (χlf); (b), high-frequency mass-specific magnetic susceptibility (χhf); (c), percentage frequency of magnetic susceptibility (χfd%). The numbers 6, 10, 18, and 19 denote the sample number.
Fig. 6 Distribution of total organic carbon (TOC; a) and total nitrogen (TN; b) along the west-east transect. The numbers 6, 10, 18, and 19 denote the sample number.
Table 1 Correlation among indicators of surface sediments at the southern margin of the Taklamakan Desert
Fig. 7 Mineralogical quantification of surface sediments based on the X-ray diffraction (XRD) results (a) and biotite quantification at different altitudes along the west-east transect (b). The numbers denote the sample number.
Fig. 8 Upper continental crust (UCC)-normalized major elemental patterns for the surface sediments. The numbers denote the sample number. Al, aluminum; Fe, iron; Ca, calcium; Na, sodium; K, potassium; Mg, magnesium; Ti, thallium.
Fig. 9 Al2O3-Cao*+Na2O-K2O (A-CN-K) ternary plot with chemical index of alteration (CIA) values of the surface sediments with different altitudes. The CIA values of granites, granodiorites (Nesbitt and Young, 1982), loess, average shales, illites, montmorillonites, beidellites, and residual clays (Taylor and McLennan, 1985; McLennan, 1993) are labeled with grey rectangles. Ideal mineral compositions (black solid circles) (McLennan, 1993); weathering levels (purple rectangles) (Feng et al., 2003; Ju et al., 2019); and UCC data (Taylor and McLennan, 1985) are shown. The line parallel to Al2O3-Cao*+Na2O (A-CN) edge is the ideal weathering trend (IWT). The numbers (6, 10, 18, and 19) denote the sample number.
Fig. 10 Distribution of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) in the Taklimakan Desert. The blue and purple circles indicate the sampling sites of surface sediments along the southern margin (this study) and the central part (Jiang and Yang, 2019) of the Taklimakan Desert, respectively, with the numbers indicating CIA values. The red dot circles indicate active dust hot spots referring to Gao and Washington (2009).
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