Hong Wang, Ph.D.

Phone: 217-244-7692 • Fax: 217-333-4732
E-mail: wang@isgs.uiuc.edu

Research Interests

• Quaternary Geology Staff Page
• Dynamics of biogenic inorganic carbon and organic carbon in rhizosphere using stable isotope analyses of calcified rootlets and fungi and soil organic matter.
• Carbon cycling among C3, C4 plants and fungal biomass in response to climate variations.
• High-resolution 14C dating of soil organic matter using pyrolysis-combustion technique.
• Pedostratigraphy using meso-scale soil morphology analysis.
• Reconstruction of millennial and centennial scale seasonal climate variability including Asian monsoon and North America El Niño-Southern Oscillation records during last glacial-interglacial cycles.
• Color variations on Pedostratigraphy.
• Magnetic susceptibility of loess-paleosol sequence.
• Grain size analysis of loess-paleosol sequence.
• Geochemistry and geophysics analyses of loess-paleosol sequence.
• Environmental change and early human adaptation.
• Reconstruction of early human diet using stable isotope analysis of bone collagen and apatite.

Current Projects

• Interface of loess deposition and paleosol formation during possible last 5 glacial-interglacial cycles.
• Stable isotope analyses of calcified rootlets and fungi, known as carbonate rhizoliths: carbon cycling among C3, C4 and fungal biomass in response to a decadal-scale climate changes during the last glacial maximum.
• Stable isotope analyses of carbonate rhizoliths: plant carbon cycles and ecosystem response to a decadal climate change during the last glacial maximum.
• Millennial-scale climate changes and ENSO variability in Midwest of US during last glaciation.
• Stable isotope of organic residue in speleothem and soil ecosystem variation during the past.
• Radiocarbon dating of soil organic matter using high-temperature pyrolysis-combustion technique.

Selected Publications

Wang. H., Mason, J.A., Balsam, W.L. (in press). Grain size distribution and diffuse reflectance variability in Peoria loess in southern Illinois. Quaternary Science Reviews.

Wang, H., Ambrose, S.H. and Fouke, B.W. (2004). Evidence of long-term seasonal climate forcing in rhizolith isotopes during the last glaciation. Geophysical Research Letters 31 L13203.

Panno, S.V., Curry, B. B., Wang, H., Hackley, K.C., Liu C.L., Lundstrom, C. and Zhou J. (2004). Climate change in southern Illinois, USA, based on the age and 13C of organic matter in cave sediments. Quaternary Research 61, 301-313.

Wang, H., K.C. Hackley, S.V. Panno, D.D. Coleman, J C-L, Liu, and J. Brown, 2003, Pyrolysis combustion 14C dating of soil organic matter: Quaternary Research, v. 60, no. 3 p.

Wang, H., R.E. Hughes, J.D. Steele, S.M. Lepley, J. Tian, 2003, Correlation of climate cycles of Middle Mississippi Valley loess and Greenland ice: Geology, v. 31, no, 2, p. 179-182.

Wang, H., Follmer, L.R. and Grimley, D. 2001. Keller Farm Section. In Malone, D (ed). Guidebook for Field Trips for the Thirty-Fifth Annual Meeting of the North-Central Section of Geological Society of America, ISGS Guidebook 33. pp.51-55.

Wang, H., L.R. Follmer, and J.C-L. Liu, 2000, Isotope evidence of paleo-El Niño-Southern Oscillation cycles in loess-paleosol record in the central United States: Geology, v. 28, pp. 771-774.

Wang, H., Follmer, L.R. and Liu, J.C-L. 1998. Abrupt climate oscillations in the loess record of the Mississippi Valley during the last glacial maximum. In Busacca et al. (eds): Dust Aerosols, Loess Soils & Global Change, pp. 179-182.

Wang, H., Liu, C-L., and Follmer, L.R. (1998). Climate trend and habitat variation based on oxygen and carbon isotopes in paleosols from Liujiapo, Shaanxi, China. Quaternary International 51/52, 52-54.

Wang, H., Ambrose, S.H., Liu, C-L J. and Follmer, L.R. (1997). Paleosol stable isotope evidence for early Hominid Occupation of East Asian Temperate environments. Quaternary Research. 48, 228-238.

Wang, H. and Follmer, L.R. (1998). Proxy of monsoon seasonality in carbon isotopes from paleosols of the southern Chinese Loess Plateau. Geology 26, 987-990.

Ordering information for Illinois State Geological Survey Publications.