Ph. D. student LIU Zhifeng and his teacher LIU Qingsong conduct magnetic measurements on modern soil profiles along a North-South transect in Shaanxi Province, China, to test a new magnetic proxy, defined as the ratio between the absolute frequency dependent susceptibility and hard isothermal remanence magnetization for paleoprecipitation estimation. 

This new paleoclimatic transfer function has potential to predict the mean annual precipitation (MAP) for Holocene soils with MAP < 1000 mm, providing that there is no reductive dissolution or alteration of the iron oxides and the effect of other influential factors (e.g. temperature) is taken into account. 

Fig. 1. Locations of soil profiles. (Image by LIU) 

Fig. 9. The regression between the χ_FD/HIRM value and MAP. (Image by LIU) 

Liu et al. Testing the magnetic proxy χ_FD /HIRM for quantifying paleoprecipitation in modern soil profiles from Shaanxi Province, China. Global and Planetary Change, 2013, 110 (C): 368-378. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gloplacha.2013.04.013