. (2014) 'Reconstructing modern stalagmite growth from cave monitoring, local meteorology, and experimental measurements of dripwater lms.', Earth and planetary science letters., 392 . pp. 239-249. Further information on publisher's website:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2014.02.036Publisher's copyright statement: NOTICE: this is the author's version of a work that was accepted for publication in Earth and Planetary Science Letters. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be re ected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A de nitive version was subsequently published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 392, 15 April 2014, 10.1016/j.epsl.2014 Additional information:
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AbstractInterpretations of high-resolution proxy datasets from stalagmites require support from longterm cave monitoring data and quantified changes in sample growth rate. One cave site for which the modern climate signal transfer systematics are relatively well characterised by cave monitoring is New St Michael's Cave, Gibraltar. This site provides a rare opportunity to reconstruct modern calcite growth, to link growth with the cave environment and local climate, and to test the sufficiency of existing growth rate theory on monthly to inter-annual timescales. Here, we use a numerical time-series growth rate model, driven by cave monitoring and local meteorological data, and the results of an experimental investigation into variation in dripwater film thickness as a function of stalagmite apex morphology to reconstruct the modern growth (AD 1951(AD -2004 of 'Gib04a', a stalagmite retrieved from New St Michael's Cave. Our experimental measurements demonstrate that dripwater film thickness decreases linearly with increasing stalagmite curvature and that the presence of millimetre-scale surface microtopography reduces film thickness by an order of magnitude. We identified changes in growth laminae curvature from a Gib04a cut section to determine film thickness variability through time and combined this with estimated dripwater [Ca 2+ ] and cave air pCO 2 seasonality to drive the model. Our reconstruction exhibits strong seasonality and tracks variability in calcite [Sr 2+ ], a trace metal whose incorporation into calcite is partially growth rate-controlled. Reconstructed growth also shows co-variation with seasonal changes in calc...