Sensitive Grain-Size Components of Last Glacial Loess on Chinese Loess Plateau and Their Response to East Asian Winter Monsoon

Chinese loess provides the most detailed terrestrial records of paleoclimate changes. We employed the grain-size components of aeolian sediments to reconstruct the history of the East Asian winter monsoon (EAWM) on the Chinese Loess Plateau (CLP). Here, using the grain-size class vs. standard deviation method, we extracted the environmentally sensitive grain-size components of nine last glacial loess sections. The grain-size class vs. standard deviation diagrams showed two major grain-size components (fine and coarse), which varied from section to section. Material resource distances and post-depositional pedogenesis were the main factors affecting environmentally sensitive grain-size components. The coarse grain-size components of the Yulin, Baicaoyuan, Xifeng, and Luochuan sections were influenced by the transportation distance, while we attributed the fine grain-size components of the Weinan, Shaoling, Duanjiapo, and Chaona sections to pedogenesis. At the same time, the Mianchi section’s sensitive grain-size component was also coarse, and was affected by the local circulation from the nearby Yellow River terrace. Our comparison of sensitive grain-size components and EAWM revealed that the coarse grain-size components were progressively finer along with the EAWM from the northwest to the southeast on the CLP, and they can be regarded as the most suitable proxy indicator of the EAWM on the CLP.