Sea-rain-lake relation in the Last Glacial East Mediterranean revealed by δ18O-δ13C in Lake Lisan aragonites

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Abstract

We investigated the Sea-Rain-Lake relation during the Last Glacial–Holocene in the East Mediterranean region by comparing the δ18O and δ13C records of authigenic aragonite deposited in Lake Lisan, the Dead Sea, Mediterranean foraminifera, and speleothems. The Lisan Formation data display long- and short-term variations of δ18O, representing steady-state conditions of the lake (e.g., 5.6‰ ± 0.5‰ and 4.5‰ ± 1‰ in the Upper and Lower Members of the Lisan Formation, respectively), and short-term excursions reflecting large floods and droughts. The long-term (steady-state) δ18O values of the Lisan aragonites show similarity to the corresponding time-equivalent records of the Eastern Mediterranean foraminifera and Judea Mountain speleothems: The Last Glacial deposits are in all of them 2‰–3‰ heavier than the Holocene ones. We interpret this similarity as reflecting the significance of the source effect on the long-term behavior of isotopic reservoirs: Speleothem δ18O is strongly influenced by the marine reservoir that contributes its vapor to rain formation; the lake δ18O is dominated by the composition of the inflowing water. Short-term variations in the isotopic composition of rainfall are dominated by the amount effect and the temperature and those of the Lake’s upper water mass by the lake’s water balance.

δ13C values are more variable than δ18O in the same Lisan sequences (e.g., δ13C in the Lower Member is 1.0‰ ± 1.7‰, whereas δ18O is 4.6‰ ± 0.7‰) and are 1‰ to 1.5‰ higher in the Upper Member than in the Lower and Middle Members of the Lisan Formation. These variations reflect significant increase in primary productivity of the lake and algal bloom activity. It appears that the hypersaline-saline lakes were not as “dead” as the Dead Sea is and that algal activity had an important impact upon the geochemistry of Lake Lisan.

The δ18O data combined with independent geochemical and limnologic information (e.g., level fluctuations) indicate that Lisan time was characterized by high precipitation–high lake stands–high atmospheric humidity, whereas the Holocene Dead Sea shows the opposite behavior. This paleoclimatic reconstruction is consistent with independent evidence for significantly wetter conditions in the East Mediterranean region during the Last Glacial period.

Introduction

Oxygen and carbon isotope ratios in marine archives have been widely applied in the study of Pleistocene-Holocene paleoclimate. In the continental environment the application of oxygen and carbon isotope ratios to paleoenvironmental studies is more difficult because of the complicated set of factors that control the fractionation of the isotopes and the limited extent of the studied environments. Nevertheless, lake sediments were previously studied by isotopic methods, yielding significant paleohydrologic information (e.g., Talbot, 1990; Ricketts and Johnson, 1996; Li and Ku, 1997; Leng et al. 2001). Yet, the question remains open as to the relation between the stable isotope record of global climatic inventories of the ocean and those of limited continental regions. Here, we present a stable isotope (oxygen and carbon) study of authigenic aragonite that was deposited in Lake Lisan, the Last Glacial precursor of the Dead Sea, and in the Holocene Dead Sea. In earlier studies the behavior of stable isotopes in these water bodies was interpreted as reflecting complicated relations to factors such as input water composition, evaporation, relative humidity, atmospheric humidity, and salinity (Gat, 1984; Katz et al., 1977). We reexamine the relationships between the different hydrological factors, and evaluate seawater-rain-lake relationships by comparing stable isotope data of lake deposited aragonite with those of coeval marine foraminifera and speleothems.

Section snippets

Geological settings

Three major consecutive lacustrine water bodies occupied the Dead Sea basin during the late Pleistocene-Holocene times: Lake Samra (Amora), Lake Lisan, and the Dead Sea, depositing the Samra, Lisan, and Ze’elim Formations, respectively (Zak, 1967; Stein, 2001). Our study focuses on the stable isotope behavior of lakes Lisan and the Dead Sea.

Sampling

Pure aragonite laminae were separated from large blocks of the Lisan Fm. at Perazim Valley (PZ1 section; Fig. 1, Fig. 2). The section representing a time span of ∼55 Kyr B.P. was sampled on two time-scales. (1) The entire section was sampled in intervals of ∼1 m (except between 830 and 1330 cm, where poor exposure prevented sufficiently dense sampling). In this sampling scheme a time resolution of ∼1000 yrs was aimed at. (2) At specific elevations, where significant limnologic changes occur

Discussion

The isotopic composition of oxygen in CaCO3 that precipitates (in equilibrium) from an aqueous solution depends on temperature and water composition. The relation between these factors was established by Epstein et al. (1953) and Craig (1965) and was formulated for the precipitation of chemical aragonite by the following equation (considering a 0.6‰ difference between calcite and aragonite equilibration; Tarutani et al., 1969):T°C=16.94.2(δC+0.6δW)+0.13(δC+0.6δW)2

where δW = δ18O of CO2 in

Summary: limnologic-climatic implications

  • 1

    Comparison of Lake Lisan–Dead Sea δ18O records with the Mediterranean Sea and caves records (Fig. 8) demonstrates that the Mediterranean rain fronts have been a dominant source of precipitation in the region. When this source shut down, arid conditions prevailed and the lake level dropped.

  • 2

    It appears that during major lake drops the steady-state condition is not achieved and high δ18O values are established. Although we have no samples from the extreme low stands (the lake retreated from the PZ1

Acknowledgments

We thank J. R. Gat, A. Frumkin, M. Stiller, A. Starinsky, M. Bar-Matthews, A. Ayalon, and A. Katz for thorough discussions and hope that the heat that was sometimes generated during these conversations resulted in some light as well. A. Hecht, B. Z. Begin, N. Shefer, A. Ayalon, and B. Schilman generously provided us with unpublished data and preprints. N. Shiloni-Haviv, O. Klein-Ben David, R. (Ken-Tor) Bookman, N. Waldmann, and A. Haliva helped in fieldwork and in the meticulous separation of

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    Associate editor: D. Lea

    Present address: Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, 61 Rt 9W, Palisades, NY 10964-8000, USA.

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