Wirth, Stefanie B; Sessions, Alex L (2016): Younger Dryas-Holocene sedimentary plant-wax hydrogen isotopes from the southern European Alps [dataset]. PANGAEA, https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.864869, Supplement to: Wirth, SB; Sessions, AL (2016): Plant-wax D/H ratios in the southern European Alps record multiple aspects of climate variability. Quaternary Science Reviews, 148, 176-191, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2016.07.020
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Abstract:
We present a Younger Dryas-Holocene record of the hydrogen isotopic composition of sedimentary plant waxes (dDwax) from the southern European Alps (Lake Ghirla, N-Italy) to investigate its sensitivity to climatic forcing variations in this mid-latitude region (45°N).
A modern altitudinal transect of dD values of river water and leaf waxes in the Lake Ghirla catchment is used to test present-day climate sensitivity of dDwax. While we find that altitudinal effects on dDwax are minor at our study site, temperature, precipitation amount, and evapotranspiration all appear to influence dDwax to varying extents.
In the lake-sediment record, dDwax values vary between -134 and -180 per mil over the past 13 kyr. The long-term Holocene pattern of dDwax parallels the trend of decreasing temperature and is thus likely forced by the decline of northern hemisphere summer insolation. Shorter-term fluctuations, in contrast, may reflect both temperature and moisture-source changes. During the cool Younger Dryas and Little Ice Age (LIA) periods we observe unexpectedly high dDwax values relative to those before and after. We suggest that a change towards a more D-enriched moisture source is required during these intervals. In fact, a shift from northern N-Atlantic to southern N-Atlantic/western Mediterranean Sea sources would be consistent with a southward migration of the Westerlies with climate cooling. Prominent dDwax fluctuations in the early and middle Holocene are negative and potentially associated with temperature declines. In the late Holocene (<4 kyr BP), excursions are partly positive (as for the LIA) suggesting a stronger influence of moisture-source changes on dDwax variation. In addition to isotopic fractionations of the hydrological cycle, changes in vegetation composition, in the length of the growing season, and in snowfall amount provide additional potential sources of variability, although we cannot yet quantitatively assess these in the paleo-record. We conclude that while our dDwax record from the Alps does contain climatic information, it is a complicated record that would require additional constraints to be robustly interpreted. This also has important implications for other water-isotope-based proxy records of precipitation and hydro-climate from this region, such as cave speleothems.
Coverage:
Latitude: 45.916600 * Longitude: 8.822500
Minimum DEPTH, sediment/rock: 0.01 m * Maximum DEPTH, sediment/rock: 12.57 m
Event(s):
Parameter(s):
| # | Name | Short Name | Unit | Principal Investigator | Method/Device | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | DEPTH, sediment/rock | Depth sed | m | Wirth, Stefanie B | Geocode | |
| 2 | AGE | Age | ka BP | Wirth, Stefanie B | Geocode | |
| 3 | Age, minimum/young | Age min | ka | Wirth, Stefanie B | ||
| 4 | Age, maximum/old | Age max | ka | Wirth, Stefanie B | ||
| 5 | Sample type | Samp type | Wirth, Stefanie B | |||
| 6 | δ Deuterium | δD | ‰ SMOW | Wirth, Stefanie B | ||
| 7 | δ Deuterium, standard deviation | δD std dev | ± | Wirth, Stefanie B | 1 sigma | |
| 8 | n-fatty acid C28 | n-C28 FA | µg/g | Wirth, Stefanie B | ||
| 9 | Carbon, organic, total | TOC | % | Wirth, Stefanie B | wt% | |
| 10 | Computer tomograph value | CT value | HU | Wirth, Stefanie B | ||
| 11 | Lithology/composition/facies | Lithology | Wirth, Stefanie B | BT: Bioturbated background sediments; RS: Regular background sediments; FL: Flood layer; MMD: Mass-movement deposit; CL: Clastic sediments |
License:
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC-BY-3.0)
Size:
874 data points