Geochemical mapping of organic carbon in stalagmites using liquid-phase and solid-phase fluorescence

Quiers, Marine; Perrette, Yves; Chalmin, Émilie; Fanget, Bernard; Poulenard, Jérôme

doi:10.1016/j.chemgeo.2015.07.012

Cited by 19 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…However, "dirty" material often also contains a relatively high organic content (Blyth et al, 2008;Blyth et al, 2015), thus opening up the possibility of using radiocarbon dating of the preserved organic matter as a partial solution to this problem. To date, we are aware of only limited radiocarbon studies that utilised the organic matter preserved in speleothems, probably because the proportion of TOC has been historically hard to measure in this context and is generally very low (0.01 -0.3% of total carbon; Blyth et al, 2013;Li et al, 2014;Quiers et al 2015;Blyth et al, 2016). However, radiocarbon dating of organic compounds in moonmilk flowstones from high alpine settings, consisting of fibrous calcite crystals and with a large organic matter component (Borsato et al, 2000;Blyth & Frisia, 2008), have yielded ages consistent with those of crystalline speleothems at lower altitudes in the same area, which allowed reconstruction of long-term Holocene climate (Frisia & Borsato, 2010).…”

Section: A N U S C R I P Tmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the dating of “dirty” speleothems and cave sinters using radiocarbon dating of preserved organic matter

Blyth

Hua

Smith

et al. 2017

Quaternary Geochronology

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Speleothems and other carbonate deposits such as tufa containing high proportions of detrital material can be difficult to chemically date due to detrital thorium levels causing a high level of error in conventional U-Th disequilibrium dating. Here we investigate the use of an alternative technique centring on radiocarbon dating of organic matter preserved within the detrital fraction. Non-acid soluble humic, particulate and detritally absorbed organic matter was recovered from eight samples from a flowstone sinter formed within a roman aqueduct at Trento in Italy with a maximum age of 100 CE (1850 cal yr BP), and two repeat samples from a dripstone formed within the 20 th Century on a wire fence at Lilly-Pilly Cave, Buchan Caves Reserve in Victoria, Australia. In the aqueduct samples the median calibrated 14 C ages ranged from 2232 to 2889 cal yr BP, with 95.4% probability age range in the youngest and oldest samples of 2153-2337 and 2342-3449 cal yr BP respectively. The median age of the more modern dripstone was 336 cal yr BP, with a 95.4% probability age range of 148 to 486 cal yr BP. These results provide very approximate ball-park estimates of the age of the sample, but are consistently too old when compared to the known maximum ages of formation. It is hypothesised that this offset is due to a combination of the nature of the organic carbon transported from the source organic matter pools, and reworking of both modern and old organic carbon by in situ microbial communities.

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Section: A N U S C R I P Tmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the dating of “dirty” speleothems and cave sinters using radiocarbon dating of preserved organic matter

Blyth

Hua

Smith

et al. 2017

Quaternary Geochronology

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“…Other sources of OC in cave systems include airborne material, generally limited to areas near the cave entrances, and compounds derived from cave-dwelling animals and insects, which can constitute a major source of OC if large animal populations are present (Blyth et al, 2008). The portion of OC stemming from the surface is argued to be dominant in most karst systems (Baker and Genty, 1999;Perrette et al, 2015;Quiers et al, 2015;Shabarova et al, 2014), but substantial reworking of OC is generally observed (Birdwell and Engel, 2010;Einsiedl et al, 2007;Lechleitner et al, 2017;Shabarova et al, 2014). Nevertheless, OC incorporated in stalagmites is considered a potentially very sensitive proxy for surface environmental conditions (Blyth et al, 2016(Blyth et al, , 2008.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards Organic Carbon Isotope Records from Stalagmites: Coupled δ13C and 14C Analysis Using Wet Chemical Oxidation

et al. 2019

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Speleothem organic matter can be a powerful tracer for past environmental conditions and karst processes. Carbon isotope measurements (δ13C and 14C) in particular can provide crucial information on the provenance and age of speleothem organic matter, but are challenging due to low concentrations of organic matter in stalagmites. Here, we present a method development study on extraction and isotopic characterization of speleothem organic matter using a rapid procedure with low laboratory contamination risk. An extensive blank assessment allowed us to quantify possible sources of contamination through the entire method. Although blank contamination is consistently low (1.7 ± 0.34 – 4.3 ± 0.86 μg C for the entire procedure), incomplete sample decarbonation poses a still unresolved problem of the method, but can be detected when considering both δ13C and 14C values. We test the method on five stalagmites, showing reproducible results on samples as small as 7 μg C for δ13C and 20 μg C for 14C. Furthermore, we find consistently lower non-purgeable organic carbon (NPOC) 14C values compared to the carbonate 14C over the bomb spike interval in two stalagmites from Yok Balum Cave, Belize, suggesting overprint of a pre-aged or even fossil source of carbon on the organic fraction incorporated by these stalagmites.

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“…Much of the past efforts in studying the composition and provenance of DOM in karst systems revolved around the question of its usefulness as speleothem paleoclimate proxy (e.g., Blyth et al, 2016, and references therein). Several studies have focused on the fluorescent properties of organic carbon in cave drip waters and stalagmites, as this parameter is easily measured and provides information on past environmental conditions and rainfall at the cave site (e.g., Baker, 1998;McGarry and Baker, 2000;Hartland et al, 2010;Quiers et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Molecular signatures of dissolved organic matter in a tropical karst system

Lechleitner

Dittmar

Baldini

et al. 2017

Organic Geochemistry

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Geochemical mapping of organic carbon in stalagmites using liquid-phase and solid-phase fluorescence

Cited by 19 publications

References 41 publications

Exploring the dating of “dirty” speleothems and cave sinters using radiocarbon dating of preserved organic matter

Exploring the dating of “dirty” speleothems and cave sinters using radiocarbon dating of preserved organic matter

Towards Organic Carbon Isotope Records from Stalagmites: Coupled δ13C and 14C Analysis Using Wet Chemical Oxidation

Molecular signatures of dissolved organic matter in a tropical karst system

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