El Niño Events Recorded by Stalagmite Carbon Isotopes

Frappier, Amy; Sahagian, Dork; González, Luis A.; Carpenter, Steven

doi:10.1126/science.1076446

Cited by 143 publications

(59 citation statements)

References 5 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Computer-controlled micromills are capable of removal of trench samples at as little as 20 µm growth intervals (Dettman et al, 1995;Frappier et al, 2002), but a resolution on this scale could only be possible with samples exhibiting exceptionally low growth relief. Given a more typical situation illustrated in Figure 6, if resolution (= distance x) is 100 µm and a typical speleothem density of 2.5 mg/mm 3 , 100 µg of sample would be produced (Table3), a convenient volume for analysis using isotope-ratio mass spectrometry.…”

Section: Optimizing the Sampling Protocolmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modification and preservation of environmental signals in speleothems

Fairchild

Smith

Baker

et al. 2006

Earth-Science Reviews

736

506

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Speleothems are primarily studied in order to generate archives of climatic change and results have led to significant advances in identifying and dating major shifts in the climate system. However, the climatological meaning of many speleothem records cannot be interpreted unequivocally; this is particularly so for more subtle shifts and shorter time periods, but the use of multiple proxies and improving understanding of formation mechanisms offers a clear way forward.An explicit description of speleothem records as time series draws attention to the nature and importance of the signal filtering processes by which the weather, the seasons and longer-term climatic and other environmental fluctuations become encoded in speleothems. We distinguish five sources of variation that influence speleothem geochemistry: atmospheric, vegetation/soil, karstic aquifer, primary speleothem crystal growth and secondary alteration and give specific examples of their influence. The direct role of climate diminishes progressively through these five factors.We identify and review a number of processes identified in recent and current work that bear significantly on the conventional interpretation of speleothem records, for example: 1) speleothem geochemistry can vary seasonally and hence a research need is to establish the proportion of growth attributable to different seasons and whether this varies over time.2) whereas there has traditionally been a focus on monthly mean δ 18 O data of atmospheric moisture, current work emphasizes the importance of understanding the synoptic processes that lead to characteristic isotope signals, since changing relative abundance of different weather types might 1 Corresponding author, fax +44(0)1214145528, E-mail: i.j.fairchild@bham.ac.uk control their variation on the longer-term. 3) the ecosystem and soil zone overlying the cave fundamentally imprint the carbon and trace element signals and can show characteristic variations with time. 4) new modelling on aquifer plumbing allows quantification of the effects of aquifer mixing. 5) recent work has emphasized the importance and seasonal variability of CO 2 -degassing leading to calcite precipitation upflow of a depositional site on carbon isotope and trace element composition of speleothems. 6) Although much is known about the chemical partitioning between water and stalagmites, variability in relation to crystal growth mechanisms and kinetics is a research frontier. 7) Aragonite is susceptible to conversion to calcite with major loss of chemical information, but the controls on the rate of this process are obscure.Analytical factors are critical to generate high-resolution speleothem records. A variety of methods of trace element analysis are available, but standardization is a common problem with the most rapid methods. New stable isotope data on Irish stalagmite CC3 compares rapid laser-ablation techniques with the conventional analysis of micromilled powders and ion microprobe methods. A high degree of comparability between techniques ...

show abstract

Section: Optimizing the Sampling Protocolmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modification and preservation of environmental signals in speleothems

Fairchild

Smith

Baker

et al. 2006

Earth-Science Reviews

736

506

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The process of developing tree-ring proxy time series begins with collecting multiple increment cores from multiple trees at a site. The annual rings are exactly dated using a process of visual and statistical cross-comparison and correlation called cross dating (Douglass, 1941;Stokes and Smiley, 1968;Fritts, 1976;Holmes, 1983). All dating issues are resolved prior to measurement, which is at high resolution (0.01 or 0.001 mm) and with high precision.…”

Section: Tree Ringsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The influence of climate is not necessarily limited to the year or growing season associated with the ring, as prior-year climate and growth can influence subsequent ring formation (Fritts, 1966). For the application of tree-ring proxies to paleoclimatology, the objective is to isolate the climatic influence on tree-ring growth, remove age-related growth trends, and minimize the influence of disturbance such that past climate as a function of ring width can be estimated.…”

Section: Tree Ringsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some studies also show that recharge of the aquifer occurs only during months when rainfall passes a given threshold, typically during the wet season in the tropics (e.g., Jones and Banner, 2003;Partin et al, 2012), but possibly associated with the winter storm season in the extratropics. While other indicators, such as band thickness (e.g., Rasbury and Aharon, 2006;Asmerom et al, 2007), trace metal ratios (see Fairchild and Treble, 2009 and references therein), and carbon isotopes (Fairchild et al, 2000;Frappier et al, 2002;Oster et al, 2015) reflect hydroclimate variability at certain sites and continue to be developed, speleothem δ 18 O remains the primary hydroclimate proxy.…”

Section: Speleothemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Comparing proxy and model estimates of hydroclimate variability and change over the Common Era

Smerdon¹,

Luterbacher²,

Phipps³

et al. 2017

Clim. Past

104

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. Water availability is fundamental to societies and ecosystems, but our understanding of variations in hydroclimate (including extreme events, flooding, and decadal periods of drought) is limited because of a paucity of modern instrumental observations that are distributed unevenly across the globe and only span parts of the 20th and 21st centuries. Such data coverage is insufficient for characterizing hydroclimate and its associated dynamics because of its multidecadal to centennial variability and highly regionalized spatial signature. High-resolution (seasonal to decadal) hydroclimatic proxies that span all or parts of the Common Era (CE) and paleoclimate simulations from climate models are therefore important tools for augmenting our understanding of hydroclimate variability. In particular, the comparison of the two sources of information is critical for addressing the uncertainties and limitations of both while enriching each of their interpretations. We review the principal proxy data available for hydroclimatic reconstructions over the CE and highlight the contemporary understanding of how these proxies are interpreted as hydroclimate indicators. We also review the available last-millennium simulations from fully coupled climate models and discuss several outstanding challenges associated with simulating hydroclimate variability and change over the CE. A specific review of simulated hydroclimatic changes forced by volcanic events is provided, as is a discussion of expected improvements in estimated radiative forcings, models, and their implementation in the future. Our review of hydroclimatic proxies and last-millennium model simulations is used as the basis for articulating a variety of considerations and best practices for how to perform proxy-model comparisons of CE hydroclimate. This discussion provides a framework for how best to evaluate hydroclimate variability and its associated dynamics using these comparisons and how they can better inform interpretations of both proxy data and model simulations. We subsequently explore means of using proxy-model comparisons to better constrain and characterize future hydroclimate risks. This is explored specifically in the context of several examples that demonstrate how proxy-model comparisons can be used to quantitatively constrain future hydroclimatic risks as estimated from climate model projections.

show abstract

“…At climatically-or environmentally-sensitive locations, however, the speleothem δ 13 C values can exhibit large and periodic shifts on orbital to inter-annual scales through changes in the vegetation and/or soil processes above the cave [3][4][5][6], which has a wider regional significance. Hence, the δ 13 C signal in these stalagmites can record spatial changes of biological activities and soil conditions.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

High-resolution stalagmite δ 13C record of soil processes from southwestern China during the early MIS 3

et al. 2012

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Knowledge of the evolution of pedogenic processes in the carbonate area is important to understand the dynamics of rock desertification. A precisely-dated stalagmite δ 13 C record between 61.3 and 50.5 ka BP from southwestern China, potentially related to soil biogenic CO 2 production, shifts within a narrow range between −9‰ and −7‰, and exhibits a prominent cycle of 350-470 a, independent of the Asian monsoon changes. This indicates that a threshold effect might control the amplitude of calcite δ 13 C variability, likely associated with the vertical soil loss in the carbonate area. The periodic δ 13 C changes reflect that the loss/recovery of soil cover can operate on centennial scale. Thus, the rock desertification in southwestern China might at least initiate 60 ka ago and should be of natural origin.

show abstract

El Niño Events Recorded by Stalagmite Carbon Isotopes

Cited by 143 publications

References 5 publications

Modification and preservation of environmental signals in speleothems

Modification and preservation of environmental signals in speleothems

Comparing proxy and model estimates of hydroclimate variability and change over the Common Era

High-resolution stalagmite δ 13C record of soil processes from southwestern China during the early MIS 3

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About