Understanding the distribution of C 3 and C 4 plants and its forcing mechanisms since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) is important for anticipating their possible response to future climate change. The spatiotemporal pattern of C 4 plant abundance on the Chinese Loess Plateau (CLP) is complex and the dominant causal factors are contentious. Here, we use δ 13 C records of organic matter in paleosols from the CLP to reconstruct c...