Journal
PALEOCEANOGRAPHY AND PALEOCLIMATOLOGY
Volume 35, Issue 7, Pages -Publisher
AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION
DOI: 10.1029/2020PA003886
Keywords
lake; moisture source; precipitation isotope; precipitation seasonality; residence time
Funding
- National Science Foundation (NSF) [ARCSS-1504267]
- NSF EAR [IF-1652274]
- NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
- UB Center for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities grant
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Arctic precipitation is predicted to increase this century. Records of past precipitation seasonality provide baselines for a mechanistic understanding of the dynamics controlling Arctic precipitation. We present an approach to reconstruct Arctic precipitation seasonality using stable hydrogen isotopes (delta H-2) of aquatic plant waxes in neighboring lakes with contrasting water residence times and present a case study of this approach in two lakes on western Greenland. Residence time calculations suggest that growing season lake water delta H-2 in one lake reflects summer precipitation delta H-2, while the other reflects amount-weighted annual precipitation delta H-2 and evaporative enrichment. Aquatic plant wax delta H-2 in the summer lake is relatively constant throughout the Holocene, perhaps reflecting competing effects of local summer warmth and increased distal moisture transport due to a strengthened latitudinal temperature gradient. In contrast, aquatic plant wax delta H-2 in the mean annual lake is 100 parts per thousand H-2 depleted from 6 to 4 ka relative to the beginning and end of the record. Because there are relatively minor changes in summer precipitation delta H-2, we interpret the 100 parts per thousand H-2 depletion in mean annual precipitation to reflect an increase in winter precipitation amount, likely accompanied by changes in winter precipitation delta H-2 and decreased evaporative enrichment. Thus, unlike the summer lake, the mean annual lake records changes in winter precipitation. This dual-lake approach may be applied to reconstruct past changes in precipitation seasonality at sites with strong precipitation isotope seasonality and minimal lake water evaporative enrichment.
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