Biogeosciences Discussions
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10.5194/bgd-6-8609-2009
http://www.biogeosciences-discuss.net/6/8609/2009/
http://www.biogeosciences-discuss.net/6/8609/2009/bgd-6-8609-2009.html
http://www.biogeosciences-discuss.net/6/8609/2009/bgd-6-8609-2009.pdf
8609
8631
2009-09-01
Assessment of soil <i>n</i>-alkane δ<i>D</i> and branched tetraether membrane lipid distributions as tools for paleoelevation reconstruction
F. Peterse
francien.peterse@nioz.nl
M. T. J. van der Meer
S. Schouten
G. Jia
J. Ossebaar
J. Blokker
J. S. Sinninghe Damsté
Department of Marine Organic Biogeochemistry, NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, P.O. Box 59, 1790 AB Den Burg, Texel, The Netherlands
State Key Laboratory of Organic Geochemistry, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China
Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University, P.O. Box 80021, 3508 TA Utrecht, The Netherlands
δ<sup>18</sup>O values of pedogenic minerals forming from soil water are commonly used
to reconstruct paleoelevation. To circumvent some of the disadvantages of this method, soil
<i>n</i>-alkane δ<i>D</i> values were recently proposed as a new tool to reconstruct elevation
changes, after showing that soil <i>n</i>-alkane δ<i>D</i> values track the altitude effect on
precipitation δ<i>D</i> variations (<i>r</i><sup>2</sup>=0.73 along Mt. Gongga, China). To
verify the suitability of soil <i>n</i>-alkane δ<i>D</i> values as a paleoelevation proxy we
measured the δ<i>D</i> of soil <i>n</i>-alkanes along Mt. Kilimanjaro (Tanzania). At midslope,
soil <i>n</i>-alkane δ<i>D</i> values are highly influenced by the present precipitation belt,
causing D-depletion. Consequently, soil <i>n</i>-alkane δ<i>D</i> values do not linearly relate
with altitude (<i>r</i><sup>2</sup>=0.03), suggesting that they can not serve as an unambiguous
proxy to infer past elevation changes. In contrast, it was recently shown that the MBT/CBT
temperature proxy, which is based on the distribution of branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol
tetraether (GDGT) membrane lipids, is linearly related with MAT, and thus altitude
(<i>r</i><sup>2</sup>=0.77), at Mt. Kilimanjaro. This suggests that this proxy may be more
suitable for paleoelevation reconstruction. However, application of the MBT/CBT proxy on the
altitude gradient along Mt. Gongga showed that, although the MBT/CBT-derived temperature
lapse rate (−5.9°C/1000 m) resembles the measured temperature lapse rate
(−6.0°C/1000 m), there is a relatively large degree of scatter
(<i>r</i><sup>2</sup>=0.55). Our results thus show that both proxies can be subject to
relatively large uncertainties in their assessment of past elevation changes, but that
a combination of the soil <i>n</i>-alkane δ<i>D</i> and MBT/CBT proxies can likely result in
a more reliable assessment of paleoelevation.
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