Hong Wang, Ph.D.

Isotope Geochemist
Director Geochronology Laboratory
Isotope Geochemistry Section
Geological Mapping and Hydrogeology Center

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

Research Interests

• ¹⁴C dating of soil organic matter using pyrolysis-combustion technique
• ¹⁴C dating of bone collagen using pyrolysis-combustion technique
• Extraction of bone collagen, bone apatite, and enamel apatite for ¹⁴C dating and stable isotope analyses
• ¹⁴C dating of ostrich eggshell, snail shells, and marine mollusk shells
• ¹⁴C dating of cooking residue, soot, and pictograph
• C and O stable isotopes of calcified rhizoliths and soil organic matter for reconstructing C₃ and C₄ plant biomass in response to climate variations
• Reconstruction of long-term seasonal climate variability including Asian Monsoons and North America El Niño-Southern Oscillation records during last glacial-interglacial cycles
• Paleosol meso morphology and pedostratigraphy
• Diffuse reflectance (color variations) in L*a*b* systems for loess-paleosol successions in Mississippi and Missouri river valleys
• Magnetic susceptibility of loess-paleosol record in southern Illinois
• Reconstruction of paleoenvironment and climate variations of early humans in Northern China using stable isotope analyses of soil organic matter and soil carbonate
• Reconstruction of early human diets using stable isotope analysis of bone collagen and enamel apatite
• Optical Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dating on loess and fluvial sediments

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

Reviewed Publications

Wang, H., Headman, K., Emerson, T., and Ambrose, S. (in preparation). AMS ¹⁴C dating of human bones using pyrolysis-combustion method. Radiocarbon.

Curry, B.B., Wang, H., Hackley, K., Alexanderson, H., Yansa, C.H., and Lowell, T. (in preparation). The De Kalb ice-walled lake mounds of northeastern Illinois: archives of deglacial history and postglacial environments.

Wang, H., Lundstrom, C.C., Zhang, Z., Grimley, D.A., and Balsam, W.L. (in review). A mid-late Quaternary loess-paleosol record in Simmons Farm in southern Illinois, USA. Quaternary Science Review.

Miao, X., Mason, J.A., Johnson, W.C., and Wang, H. (2007). High-resolution proxy record of Holocene climate from a loess section in Southwest Nebraska, USA. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Paleoecology 245, 368-381.

Wang H. and Greenberg, S.E. (2007). Reconstructing the response of C₃ and C₄ plants to decadal-scale climate change during the Late Pleistocene in southern Illinois using isotopic analyses of calcified rootlets. Quaternary Research 67, 136-142.

Wang H., Mason, J.A., and Balsam, W.L. (2006). The importance of both geological and pedological processes in control of grain size and sedimentation rates in Peoria loess. Geoderma 136, 388-400.

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, J.C-L., Lundstrom, C. and Zhou, J. (2004). Climate change in southern Illinois, USA, based on the age and δ¹³C of organic matter in cave sediments. Quaternary Research 61, 301-313.

Wang, H., Hackley, K.C., Panno, S.V., Coleman, D.D., Liu, J. C-L., and Brown, J. (2003). Pyrolysis combustion ¹⁴C dating of soil organic matter. Quaternary Research 60, 348-355.

Wang, H., Hughes, R.E., Steele, J.D., Lepley, S.M., and Tian, J. (2003). Correlation of climate cycles of Middle Mississippi Valley loess and Greenland ice. Geology 31, 179-182.

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

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.

Wang, H., Liu, J.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, J.C-L., 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. (1988). An Early Pleistocene mammalian fauna from Dali, Shaanxi, China. Vertebrata Palatiasica. 26, 59-72.

Non-reviewed publications

Wang, H. (2007). Interactive comment on "Changes in C₃/C₄ vegetation in the continental interior of the Central Himalayas associated with monsoonal paleoclimatic changes during the last 600 kyr" by M. Mampuku et al. Climate of the Past Discussions 3, 533-536.

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. 51-55.

Grimley, D., Phillips, A.C., Follmer, L.R., Wang, H., and Nelson, R.S. (2001). Quaternary and Environmental Geology of the St.Louis Metro East Area. 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. p. 21-31.

Grimley, D., Follmer, L.R., and Wang, H. (2001). Dunn Road 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. p. 47-51.

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, p. 179-182.

Books and book chapters

Wang H. (In review) Long-term El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) variability and millennial-scale climatic cycles in the central United States during the last glaciation. In Climate Change Research Trends (Ed. Frank Columbus). Novapublisher.

Curry, B.B., Wang, H., Hackley, K.C., and Panno, S.V. (In press). Chapter 10, Quaternary Paleoclimate. Geology of Illinois (Kolata, D.R., Ed). ISGS Press.

Wang, H. Radiocarbon (¹⁴C) Dating and Analysis in Illinois State Geological Survey, pp.50.

Wang, H. (1996). Climate and habitat reconstruction of Hominid sites in northern China with paleosol stable isotopes. Ph.D. Dissertation. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. pp. 258.

Selected Abstracts

Wang, H. and Grimley, D.A. (2008), A long loess record in southern Illinois: 5 interglacial 2 prominent interstadial paleosols, and 5 loesses. The Geological Society of America 42^nd Annual Meeting of North-Central Section Evansville, Indiana. Volume 40 No. 5, p. 3.

Grimley, D.A., Wang, H. and Counts, R. (2008), A record of last glacial climate changes and paleoecology from a loess-paleosol record in western Kentucky. The Geological Society of America 42^nd Annual Meeting of North-Central Section Evansville, Indiana. Volume 40 No. 5, p. 4.

Counts, R.C., Wang, H., and Grimley, D.A. (2008), Luminescence and radiocarbon chronology of loess-paleosol sequences in the lower Ohio River Valley. The Geological Society of America 42^nd Annual Meeting of North-Central Section Evansville, Indiana. Volume 40 No. 5, p. 3.

Miao, X., Wang, H., and Hanson, P. (2008), Optical and radiocarbon ages of eolian sand in the Green River Lowland, northwestern Illinois. The Geological Society of America 42^nd Annual Meeting of North-Central Section Evansville, Indiana. Volume 40 No. 5, p. 74.

Wang, H. (2007). Decadal-scale climate variations in carbonate rhizolith: most reliable soil carbonates for high resolution stable isotope analysis. North Central-South Central GSA Conference, Lawrence, Kansas, April 11-13, 2007. pp. 5.

Johnson, D.L., Johnson, D.N., Horwath, J.L., Wang, H., Hackley, K.C., and Cahill, R.A. (2006). Mima mounds as upper soil biomantles: What happens when the dominant bioturbators leave and invertebrates take over? WCSS, Pscilly, PA, July 9-15, 2006.

Wang, H. (2003). Short-term variation of C₃/C₄ plants and growing-season climate in carbon and oxygen isotopes of carbonate rootlet casts. XVI INQUA Congress Programs with Abstracts. Reno, Nevada. pp. 164.

Wang, H. (2002). Soil stratigraphy in Peoria Loess in the middle Mississippi Valley. American Quaternary Association Program and abstract of the 17^th Biennial Meeting. Anchorage, Alaska. pp. 126.

Wang, H. (2002). Rootlet carbonates and seasonal terrestrial climate significance. American Quaternary Association Program and abstract of the 17^th Biennial Meeting. Anchorage, Alaska. pp. 127.

Wang, H., Liu, J.C-L., Hackley, K.C., Shiffer, S. and Follmer, L.R. (1999). An alternative method of radiocarbon dating for loess. The Geological Society of America 33^rd Annual Meeting, North-Central Section. p. A-79.

Wang, H. and Follmer, L.R. (1998). A polygenetic model for pedostratigraphic units in the Chinese Loess Plateau region. Quaternary International 51/52, 52.

Hackley, K.C., Liu, J.C-L., and Wang, H. (1997). Methane leakage from underground storage field: source identification, geological implications, and effects on soil and crops. Abstract in GSA Annual Meeting. The Geological Society of America 1997 Annual Meeting. p. A151.

Ordering information for Illinois State Geological Survey Publications.

Updated 8/26/2009 SLD