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One of the most significant Late Holocene climate shifts occurred around 2800 years ago, when cooler and wetter climate conditions established in western Europe. This shift coincided with an abrupt change in regional atmospheric circulation between 2760 and 2560 cal years BP, which has been linked to a grand solar minimum with the same duration (the Homeric Minimum). We investigated the temporal sequence of hydroclimatic and vegetation changes across this interval of climatic change (Homeric climate oscillation) by using lipid biomarker stable hydrogen isotope ratios (ED values) and pollen assemblages from the annually-laminated sediment record from lake Meerfelder Maar (Germany). Over the investigated interval (3200-2000 varve years BP), terrestrial lipid biomarker ED showed a gradual trend to more negative values, consistent with the western Europe long-term climate trend of the Late Holocene. At ca. 2640 varve years BP we identified a strong increase in aquatic plants and algal remains, indicating a rapid change in the aquatic ecosystem superimposed on this long-term trend. Interestingly, this aquatic ecosystem change was accompanied by large changes in ED values of aquatic lipid biomarkers, such as nC(21) and nC(23) (by between 22 and 30%(0)). As these variations cannot solely be explained by hydroclimate changes, we suggest that these changes in the Wag value were influenced by changes in n-alkane source organisms. Our results illustrate that if ubiquitous aquatic lipid biomarkers are derived from a limited pool of organisms, changes in lake ecology can be a driving factor for variations on sedimentary lipid MN values, which then could be easily misinterpreted in terms of hydro climatic changes. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Soil degradation is a severe and growing threat to ecosystem services globally. Soil loss is often nonlinear, involving a rapid deterioration from a stable eco-geomorphic state once a tipping point is reached. Soil loss thresholds have been studied at plot scale, but for landscapes, quantitative constraints on the necessary and sufficient conditions for tipping points are rare. Here, we document a landscape-wide eco-geomorphic tipping point at the edge of the Tibetan Plateau and quantify its drivers and erosional consequences. We show that in the upper Kali Gandaki valley, Nepal, soil formation prevailed under wetter conditions during much of the Holocene. Our data suggest that after a period of human pressure and declining vegetation cover, a 20% reduction of relative humidity and precipitation below 200 mm/year halted soil formation after 1.6 ka and promoted widespread gullying and rapid soil loss, with irreversible consequences for ecosystem services.
The Himalaya has a major influence on global and regional climate, in particular on the Asian monsoon system. The foreland basin of the Himalaya contains a record of tectonics and paleoclimate since the Miocene. Previous work on the evolution of vegetation and climate has focused on the central and western Himalaya, where a shift from C3 to C4 vegetation has been observed at similar to 7 Ma and linked to increased seasonality, but the climatic evolution of the eastern part of the orogen is less well understood. In order to track vegetation as a marker of monsoon intensity and seasonality, we analyzed delta C-13 and 8180 values of soil carbonate and associated delta C-13 values of bulk organic carbon from previously dated sedimentary sections exposing the syn-orogenic detrital Dharamsala and Siwalik Groups in the west, and, for the first time, the Siwalik Group in the east of the Himalayan foreland basin. Sedimentary records span from 20 to 1 Myr in the west (Joginder Nagar, Jawalamukhi, and Haripur Kolar sections) and from 13 to 1 Myr in the east (Kameng section), respectively. The presence of soil carbonate in the west and its absence in the east is a first indication of long-term lateral climatic variation, as soil carbonate requires seasonally arid conditions to develop. delta C-13 values in soil carbonate show a shift from around -10 parts per thousand to -2 parts per thousand at similar to 7 Ma in the west, which is confirmed by delta C-13 analyses on bulk organic carbon that show a shift from around -23 parts per thousand to -19 parts per thousand at the same time. Such a shift in isotopic values is likely to be associated with a change from C3 to C4 vegetation. In contrast, delta C-13 values of bulk organic carbon remain at 23 parts per thousand o in the east. Thus, our data show that the current east -west variation in climate was established at similar to 7 Ma. We propose that the regional change towards a more seasonal climate in the west is linked to a decrease of the influence of the Westerlies, delivering less winter precipitation to the western Himalaya, while the east remained annually humid due to its proximity to the monsoonal moisture source. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Leaf wax n-alkanes of terrestrial plants are long-chain hydrocarbons that can persist in sedimentary records over geologic timescales. Since meteoric water is the primary source of hydrogen used in leaf wax synthesis, the hydrogen isotope composition (delta D value) of these biomarkers contains information on hydrological processes. Consequently, leaf wax n-alkane delta D values have been advocated as powerful tools for paleohydrological research. The exact kind of hydrological information that is recorded in leaf wax n-alkanes remains, however, unclear because critical processes that determine their delta D values have not yet been resolved. In particular the effects of evaporative deuterium (D)-enrichment of leaf water on the delta D values of leaf wax n-alkanes have not yet been directly assessed and quantified. Here we present the results of a study where we experimentally tested if and by what magnitude evaporative D-enrichment of leaf water affects the delta D of leaf wax n-alkanes in angiosperm C3 and C4 plants. Our study revealed that n-alkane delta D values of all plants that we investigated were affected by evaporative D-enrichment of leaf water. For dicotyledonous plants we found that the full extent of leaf water evaporative D-enrichment is recorded in leaf wax n-alkane delta D values. For monocotyledonous plants we found that between 18% and 68% of the D-enrichment in leaf water was recorded in the delta D values of their n-alkanes. We hypothesize that the different magnitudes by which evaporative D-enrichment of leaf water affects the delta D values of leaf wax n-alkanes in monocotyledonous and dicotyledonous plants is the result of differences in leaf growth and development between these plant groups. Our finding that the evaporative D-enrichment of leaf water affects the delta D values of leaf wax n-alkanes in monocotyledonous and dicotyledonous plants albeit at different magnitudes - has important implications for the interpretation of leaf wax n-alkane delta D values from paleohydrological records. In addition, our finding opens the door to employ delta D values of leaf wax n-alkanes as new ecohydrological proxies for evapotranspiration that can be applied in contemporary plant and ecosystem research.
The stable hydrogen isotope ratios (delta D) of leaf wax n-alkanes record valuable information on plant and ecosystem water relations. It remains, however, unknown if leaf wax n-alkane delta D values record only environmental variation during the brief period of time of leaf growth or if leaf wax n-alkane delta D values are affected by environmental variability throughout the entire lifespan of a leaf. To resolve these uncertainties, we irrigated Populus trichocarpa trees with a pulse of deuterium-enriched water and used compound-specific stable hydrogen isotope analyses to test if the applied tracer could be recovered from leaf wax n-alkanes of leaves that were at different stages of their development during the tracer application. Our experiment revealed that only leaf wax n-alkanes from leaves that had developed during the time of the tracer application were affected, while leaves that were already fully matured at the time of the tracer application were not. We conclude from our study that under controlled environmental conditions, leaf wax n-alkanes are synthesized only early in the ontogeny of a leaf. Our experiment has implications for the interpretation of leaf wax n-alkane delta D values in an environmental context, as it suggests that these compounds record only a brief period of the environmental variability that a leaf experiences throughout its life.
While of higher plant origin, a specific source assignment of sedimentary leaf wax n-alkanes remains difficult. In addition, it is unknown how fast a changing catchment vegetation would be reflected in sedimentary leaf wax archives. In particular, for a quantitative interpretation of n-alkane C and H isotope ratios in terms of paleohydrological and paleoecological changes, a better understanding of transfer times and dominant sedimentary sources of leaf wax n-alkanes is required. In this study we tested to what extent compositional changes in leaf wax n-alkanes can be linked to known vegetation changes by comparison with high-resolution palynological data from the same archive. We analyzed leaf wax n-alkane concentrations and distributions in decadal resolution from a sedimentary record from Trzechowskie paleolake (TRZ, northern Poland), covering the Late Glacial to early Holocene (13 360-9940 yr BP). As an additional source indicator of targeted n-alkanes, compound-specific carbon isotopic data have been generated in lower time resolution. The results indicated rapid responses of n-alkane distribution patterns coinciding with major climatic and paleoecological transitions. We found a shift towards higher average chain length (ACL) values at the Allerod-Younger Dryas (YD) transition between 12 680 and 12 600 yr BP, co-evaled with a decreasing contribution of arboreal pollen (mainly Pinus and Betula) and a subsequently higher abundance of pollen derived from herbaceous plants (Poaceae, Cyperaceae, Artemisia), shrubs, and dwarf shrubs (Juniperus and Salix). The termination of the YD was characterized by a successive increase in n-alkane concentrations coinciding with a sharp decrease in ACL values between 11 580 and 11 490 yr BP, reflecting the expansion of woodland vegetation at the YD-Holocene transition. A gradual reversal to longer chain lengths after 11 200 yr BP, together with decreasing n-alkane concentrations, most likely reflects the early Holocene vegetation succession with a decline of Betula. These results show that n-alkane distributions reflect vegetation changes and that a fast (i.e., subdecadal) signal transfer occurred. However, our data also indicate that a standard interpretation of directional changes in biomarker ratios remains difficult. Instead, responses such as changes in ACL need to be discussed in the context of other proxy data. In addition, we find that organic geochemical data integrate different ecological information compared to pollen, since some gymnosperm genera, such as Pinus, produce only a very low amount of n-alkanes and for this reason their contribution may be largely absent from biomarker records. Our results demonstrate that a combination of palynological and n-alkane data can be used to infer the major sedimentary leaf wax sources and constrain leaf wax transport times from the plant source to the sedimentary sink and thus pave the way towards quantitative interpretation of compound-specific hydrogen isotope ratios for paleohydrological reconstructions.
Isabel Lake is a hypersaline crater-lake on Isabel Island, Mexico, situated in the eastern tropical Pacific, an area highly sensitive to hydrological changes. Today, annual rainfall mostly occurs during the wet season, from June to October, when the northern edge of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) extends over the island. In order to evaluate the potential of sedimentary lipid biomarker signatures as a proxy of past hydro-climatic variability we have performed a calibration analysis comparing changes in biomarker distribution in the upper 16 cm of the sediment core with a regional instrumental data set. Annual laminations present in the sediment sequence allow for precise chronological control (1942-2006), More than 80 different lipid compounds were identified in the sediment and could be assigned to three major groups of source organisms: (1) algal populations; (2) a mixed community of ciliates, bacteria and cyanobacteria; and (3) photosynthetic sulfur bacteria. We found that the observed changes in the. relative contribution of the different lipid biomarkers to the sediment record were determined by the regional rainfall variability over the last 65 years. The planktonic community of Isabel Lake was highly sensitive to salinity fluctuations related to rainfall variability; seasonal precipitation results in freshwater input into the lake, driving an annual algal bloom and a relative decrease in the abundance of the more halotolerant populations of (cyano) bacteria and ciliates. Consequently, the concentration ratio between the two most abundant biomarkers in the Isabel Lake sediments, n-alkyl diols and tetrahymanol (which we define as the DiTe index), representing algal and ciliate planktonic populations, respectively, was significantly correlated with the seasonal rainfall anomaly (r = 0.68, p < 0.01). We propose that the DiTe index is a proxy of changes in the aquatic ecosystem of Isabel Lake and, by extension, regional hydrological changes in a sensitive climatic area of the eastern tropical Pacific.
Rainfall in the central Andes associated with the South American Monsoon and the South American Low-Level Jet results from orographic effects on atmospheric circulation exerted by the Andean Plateau and the Eastern Cordillera. However, despite its importance for South American climate, no reliable records exist that allow decoding the evolution of thresholds and interactions between Andean topography and atmospheric circulation, especially regarding the onset of humid conditions in the inherently dry southern central Andes. Here, we employ multi-proxy isotope data of lipid biomarkers, pedogenic carbonates and volcanic glass from the Eastern Cordillera of NW Argentina and present the first long-term evapotranspiration record. We find that regional eco-hydrology and vegetation changes are associated with initiation of moisture transport via the South American Low-Level Jet at 7.6 Ma, and subsequent lateral growth of the orogen at 6.5 Ma. Our results highlight that topographically induced changes in atmospheric circulation patterns, not global climate change, were responsible for late Miocene environmental change in this part of the southern hemisphere. This suggests that mountain building over time fundamentally controlled habitat evolution along the central Andes.
As part of ongoing research on Holocene lacustrine sediments of Lonar Crater Lake (central India), pollen assemblages in lake surface sediment and soil samples were studied to unravel pollenevegetation relationships, including pollen transport processes in tropical dry deciduous forest vegetation. Furthermore, palynological results were compared with geochemical proxies and spatial features of the lake sediments and the vegetation. The obtained data reveal strong differences in pollen assemblages and pollen concentrations between and within the studied trapping media. Local arboreal vegetation is adequately represented in the soil samples, but is less represented in the lake surface sediment samples. The composition of the lacustrine pollen assemblages is mainly influenced by patterns of transport through surface and channel runoff. Besides the relevance of our new data for reliable interpretation of fossil pollen spectra extracted from Lonar sediment cores, the results of this study are of general importance for the understanding of Quaternary pollen assemblages from tropical lacustrine archives, as well as for the implementation and selection of suitable approaches for quantitative pollen based environmental reconstructions in south Asia and beyond. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved.