Honorary Professor Hongbo Zheng

Honorary Professor

School of Earth and Environmental Sciences

z.hongbo@uq.edu.au

Researcher biography

Prof. Hongbo Zheng is a geologist with main interests in the latest episode of the Earth's history-the Cenozoic Era. He is a senior professor (Cheung Kong Scholars Programme of the Ministry of Education of China) and Director of Research Centre for Earth System Science at Yunnan University, China. He obtained his BSc in Geology at Nanjing University and MSc in Geology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, followed by PhD in Geology from the University of Western Australia. His research interests are clustered within the fields of Cenozoic geology and paleoclimatology, tectonic geomorphology, human evolution and geo-archaeology, with career interest in the geology of Tibetan Plateau. These fields have major implications for understanding Earth history, and the history of human evolution and civilization.

Publications：Hongbo Zheng has published 200 papers in peer-reviewed journals. Career publications include:

Zheng, H., Clift, P., He, M., Bian Z., et al., 2020. Formation of the First Bend in Late Eocene Gave Birth to the Modern Yangtze River. Geology (https://doi.org/10.1130/G48149.1).

Zheng, H., 2016. Asia dust production ramped up since latest Oligocene driven by Tibetan Plateau uplift. National Science Review 3: 271–274. doi: 10.1093/nsr/nww028.

Zheng, H., Wei, X., Tada, R., Clift, P., et al., 2015. Late Oligocene-early Miocene Birth of the Taklimakan Desert. PNAS 112 (25), 7662-7667.

Zheng, H., Wei, X., Tada, R., Clift, P., et al., 2015. Reply to Sun et al.: Confirming the evidence for Late Oligocene−Early Miocene Birth of the Taklimakan Desert. PNAS.

Zheng H. 2015. Birth of the Yangtze River: Age and tectonic-geomorphic implications. National Science Review, 2: 438–453.

He, M.，Zheng H.，Bookhagen, B. and Clift, P, 2014. Controls on erosion intensity in the Yangtze River basin tracked by detrital U-Pb zircon dating. Earth-Science Reviews, 136, 121-140.

Zheng, H., Clift, P., Wang, P., et al., 2013. Pre-Miocene Birth of the Yangtze River. PNAS, 110 (19), 7556-7561.

Zheng, H., Jia, D., Chen, J. and Wang, P., 2010. Did incision of the Three Gorges begin in the Eocene? Geology, doi:10.1130/G31944C.1.

Zheng, H., Powell, C., An, Z., Zhou, J. and Dong, G, 2000. Pliocene uplift of the northern Tibetan Plateau. Geology 28(8), 715-718.

Zheng, H., Rolph, T., Shaw, J., and An, Z., 1995. A detailed palaeomagnetic record for the Last Interglacial period. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 133, 339-351.

Publications

Journal Articles (24)

Journal Articles

Dai, Mingzhe, Zhou, Bin, Hu, Yuanfeng and Zheng, Hongbo (2022). Climate and landscape change favouring early rice agriculture and appreciable human impact: evidence from sediment δ13C in eastern China. Quaternary International, 619, 30-38. doi: 10.1016/j.quaint.2021.11.003

Wang, Min, Shen, Caiming, Wu, Xudong, Liu, Guangxin, Zhao, Jiaju, Sun, Qifa, Zheng, Hongbo and Li, Xiangzhong (2022). A 1,400-year eolian dust activity record from Lake Erhai in the northeastern Tibetan Plateau. Catena, 212 106050, 1-11. doi: 10.1016/j.catena.2022.106050

Zheng, Hongbo, Yang, Qing, Cao, Shuo, Clift, Peter D., He, Mengying, Kano, Akihiro, Sakuma, Aki, Xu, Huan, Tada, Ryuji and Jourdan, Fred (2022). From desert to monsoon: irreversible climatic transition at ~ 36 Ma in southeastern Tibetan Plateau. Progress in Earth and Planetary Science, 9 (1) 12. doi: 10.1186/s40645-022-00470-x

Wang, Ping, Zheng, Hongbo, Wang, Yongdong, Wei, Xiaochun, Tang, Lingyu, Jourdan, Fred, Chen, Jun and Huang, Xiangtong (2022). Sedimentology, geochronology, and provenance of the late Cenozoic "Yangtze Gravel": implications for Lower Yangtze River reorganization and tectonic evolution in southeast China. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 134 (1-2), 463-486. doi: 10.1130/b35851.1

Liu, Guangxin, He, Shaoneng, Wong, Minn Lin, Zou, Yafei, He, Haibo, Chongyi, E., Chawchai, Sakonvan, Zheng, Hongbo and Li, Xiangzhong (2021). Tropical Pacific forcing of hydroclimate in the source area of the Yellow River. Geophysical Research Letters, 48 (23). doi: 10.1029/2021GL095876

Wang, Longsheng, Zhou, Bin, Zheng, Bang, Wang, Ke, Mei, Xi, Wang, Qing, Wang, Xiaohui and Zheng, Hongbo (2021). High-resolution geochemical records in the inner shelf mud wedge of the East China Sea and their indication to the Holocene monsoon climatic changes and events. Journal of Ocean University of China, 20 (6), 1409-1418. doi: 10.1007/s11802-021-4651-1

Sakuma, Aki, Tada, Ryuji, Yoshida, Tomohiro, Hasegawa, Hitoshi, Sugiura, Naomi, Karasuda, Akinori, Wang, Ke and Zheng, Hongbo (2021). Relationship between tectonism and desertification inferred from provenance and lithofacies changes in the Cenozoic terrestrial sequence of the southwestern Tarim Basin. Progress in Earth and Planetary Science, 8 (1) 44. doi: 10.1186/s40645-021-00427-6

Wang, Zhonglei, Zheng, Hongbo, Mei, Xi, Meng, Xiangjun, Xu, Tingting, Wang, Zhongbo, Mi, Beibei, Lan, Xianhong, Wang, Feifei, Wang, Shuang, Sun, Jun and Shang, Luning (2021). Sedimentary environment evolution and provenance analysis of northwestern Liaodong Bay from the Middle Pleistocene. Quaternary International, 589, 55-67. doi: 10.1016/j.quaint.2020.11.041

Zou, Yafei, Wang, Luo, He, Haibo, Liu, Guangxin, Zhang, Jiaoyang, Yan, Yao, Gu, Zhaoyan and Zheng, Hongbo (2021). Application of a diatom transfer function to quantitative paleoclimatic reconstruction — a case study of Yunlong Lake, southwest China. Frontiers in Earth Science, 9 700194. doi: 10.3389/feart.2021.700194

He, Mengying, Zheng, Hongbo, Clift, Peter D., Bian, Zixuan, Yang, Qing, Zhang, Bihui and Xia, Lei (2021). Paleogene Sedimentary Records of the Paleo-Jinshajiang (Upper Yangtze) in the Jianchuan Basin, Yunnan, SW China. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 22 (6) e2020GC009500. doi: 10.1029/2020GC009500

Zheng, Yan, Zheng, Hongbo, Guo, Qianying, Yang, Qing, Hu, Zhujun, Yao, Xinya, Zhou, Xinying, Zhao, Keliang, Li, Xiaoqiang and Deng, Chenglong (2021). Dating the Hemudu Neolithic rice cultivation site, East China, by paleomagnetic chronostratigraphy. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 569 110297. doi: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2021.110297

Xiao, R., Zheng, Y., Liu, X., Yang, Q., Liu, G., Xia, L., Bian, Z., Guan, J., Feng, P., Xu, H., Clift, P. D., Qiang, X., Zhang, Y. and Zheng, H. (2021). Synchronous Sedimentation in Gonjo Basin, Southeast Tibet in Response to India-Asia Collision Constrained by Magnetostratigraphy. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 22 (3) e2020GC009411. doi: 10.1029/2020GC009411

He, Haibo, Liu, Zaihua, Li, Dongli, Zheng, Hongbo, Zhao, Jianxin, Chen, Chongying, Bao, Qian, Wei, Yu, Sun, Hailong and Yan, Hao (2021). Recent environmental changes in the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau inferred from organic geochemical records from the sediments of Fuxian Lake. Elementa, 9 (1) 068. doi: 10.1525/elementa.2021.068

Ling, Guangjiu, Ma, Chunmei, Yang, Qing, Hu, Zhujun, Zheng, Hongbo, Liu, Bin, Wang, Ningyuan, Chen, Minghui and Zhao, Ye (2021). Landscape evolution in the Liangzhu area since the early Holocene: a comprehensive sedimentological approach. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 562 110141. doi: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2020.110141

Sakuma, Aki, Kano, Akihiro, Kakizaki, Yoshihiro, Tada, Ryuji and Zheng, Honbo (2021). Upper Eocene travertine-lacustrine carbonate in the Jianchuan basin, southeastern Tibetan Plateau: Reappraisal of its origin and implication for the monsoon climate. Island Arc, 30 (1) e12416. doi: 10.1111/iar.12416

Zheng, Hongbo, Clift, Peter D., He, Mengying, Bian, Zixuan, Liu, Gaozheng, Liu, Xiaochun, Xia, Lei, Yang, Qing and Jourdan, Fred (2021). Formation of the First Bend in the late Eocene gave birth to the modern Yangtze River, China. Geology, 49 (1), 35-39. doi: 10.1130/G48149.1

Wei, Xiaochun, Chen, Hanlin, Zheng, Hongbo, Wang, Ping, Hanson, Richard E., Shi, Xuhua, Lin, Xiubin and Cheng, Xiaogan (2020). Miocene long-runout debris-avalanche deposits in the Eastern Pamir foreland basin record cataclasis and fragmentation mechanisms. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, 407 107105. doi: 10.1016/j.jvolgeores.2020.107105

Saravanan, Ponnusamy, Gupta, Anil K., Zheng, Hongbo, Majumder, Jeet, Panigrahi, Mruganka K. and Kharya, Aditya (2020). A 23000 year old record of paleoclimatic and environmental changes from the eastern Arabian Sea. Marine Micropaleontology, 160 101905. doi: 10.1016/j.marmicro.2020.101905

Clift, Peter D., Carter, Andrew, Wysocka, Anna, Long Van Hoang, , Zheng, Hongbo and Neubeck, Nikki (2020). A late Eocene-Oligocene through-flowing river between the Upper Yangtze and South China Sea. G3: Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 21 (7). doi: 10.1029/2020gc009046

Saravanan, Ponnusamy, Gupta, Anil K., Zheng, Hongbo, Rai, Santosh K. and Panigrahi, Mruganka K. (2020). Changes in Deep-Sea Oxygenation in the Northeast Pacific Ocean During 32–10 ka. Geophysical Research Letters, 47 (11) e2019GL086613. doi: 10.1029/2019GL086613

Isozaki, Yuko, Tada, Ryuji, Sun, Youbin, Zheng, Hongbo, Toyoda, Shin, Sugiura, Naomi, Karasuda, Akinori and Hasegawa, Hitoshi (2020). Origin of aeolian dust emitted from the Tarim Basin based on the ESR signal intensity and crystallinity index of quartz: the recycling system of fine detrital material within the basin. Geological Magazine, 157 (5), 707-718. doi: 10.1017/s0016756820000242

Kajita, Hiroto, Ota, Yuki, Yoshimura, Toshihiro, Araoka, Daisuke, Manaka, Takuya, Ziyu, Ouyang, Iwasaki, Shinya, Yanase, Takuya, Inamura, Akihiko, Uchida, Etsuo, Zheng, Hongbo, Yang, Qing, Wang, Ke, Suzuki, Atsushi and Kawahata, Hodaka (2020). Seasonal and spatial variations of chemical weathering in the Mekong Basin: from the headwaters to the lower reaches. Aquatic Geochemistry, 26 (2), 137-159. doi: 10.1007/s10498-020-09374-y

Wang, Ke, Tada, Ryuji, Zheng, Hongbo, Irino, Tomohisa, Zhou, Bin and Saito, Keita (2020). Provenance changes in fine detrital quartz in the inner shelf sediments of the East China Sea associated with shifts in the East Asian summer monsoon front during the last 6 kyrs. Progress in Earth and Planetary Science, 7 (1). doi: 10.1186/s40645-019-0319-5

Clift, Peter D., Zheng, Hongbo, Carter, Andrew, Boening, Philipp, Jonell, Tara N., Schorr, Hannah, Shan, Xin, Pahnke, Katharina, Wei, Xiaochun and Rittenour, Tammy (2017). Controls on erosion in the western Tarim Basin: implications for the uplift of northwest Tibet and the Pamir. Geosphere, 13 (5) 1378.1, 1747-1765. doi: 10.1130/GES01378.1