Articles | Volume 19, issue 23
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-5357-2022
© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-5357-2022
© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
30 Nov 2022
Research article |
| 30 Nov 2022
| 30 Nov 2022
A Holocene temperature (brGDGT) record from Garba Guracha, a high-altitude lake in Ethiopia
Lucas Bittner
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Heisenberg Chair of Physical Geography with focus on paleoenvironmental research, Institute of Geography, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany
Cindy De Jonge
Geological Institute, Department of Earth Sciences, ETH Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland
Graciela Gil-Romera
Plant Ecology and Geobotany, Philipps University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany
Department of Geoenvironmental Processes and Global Change, Pyrenean Institute of Ecology, CSIC, Zaragoza, Spain
Henry F. Lamb
Department of Geography and Earth Sciences, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth, UK
Department of Botany, School of Natural Sciences, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland
James M. Russell
Department of Geological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA
Michael Zech
Heisenberg Chair of Physical Geography with focus on paleoenvironmental research, Institute of Geography, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany
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Chemotaxonomic identification of keystone plant species in the Bale Mountains are possible using lignin phenols. However, Erica could not be differentiated chemotaxonomically from all other investigated plants using n-alkanes. Unambiguous characteristic patterns of lignin phenols reflected in the plant samples were not sustained in the organic layers and mineral topsoils. This is due to degradation and organic matter inputs by roots. Therefore, the past extent of Erica is still speculative.
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Marcel Lerch, Marcel Bliedtner, Christopher-Bastian Roettig, Jan-Uwe Schmidt, Sönke Szidat, Gary Salazar, Roland Zech, Bruno Glaser, Arno Kleber, and Michael Zech
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Imke K. Schäfer, Verena Lanny, Jörg Franke, Timothy I. Eglinton, Michael Zech, Barbora Vysloužilová, and Roland Zech
SOIL, 2, 551–564, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-2-551-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-2-551-2016, 2016
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James M. Russell, Satria Bijaksana, Hendrik Vogel, Martin Melles, Jens Kallmeyer, Daniel Ariztegui, Sean Crowe, Silvia Fajar, Abdul Hafidz, Doug Haffner, Ascelina Hasberg, Sarah Ivory, Christopher Kelly, John King, Kartika Kirana, Marina Morlock, Anders Noren, Ryan O'Grady, Luis Ordonez, Janelle Stevenson, Thomas von Rintelen, Aurele Vuillemin, Ian Watkinson, Nigel Wattrus, Satrio Wicaksono, Thomas Wonik, Kohen Bauer, Alan Deino, André Friese, Cynthia Henny, Imran, Ristiyanti Marwoto, La Ode Ngkoimani, Sulung Nomosatryo, La Ode Safiuddin, Rachel Simister, and Gerald Tamuntuan
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The Towuti Drilling Project seeks to understand the long-term environmental and climatic history of the tropical western Pacific and to discover the unique microbes that live in metal-rich sediments. To accomplish these goals, in 2015 we carried out a scientific drilling project on Lake Towuti, located in central Indonesia. We recovered over 1000 m of core, and our deepest core extended 175 m below the lake floor and gives us a complete record of the lake.
Jennifer R. Marlon, Ryan Kelly, Anne-Laure Daniau, Boris Vannière, Mitchell J. Power, Patrick Bartlein, Philip Higuera, Olivier Blarquez, Simon Brewer, Tim Brücher, Angelica Feurdean, Graciela Gil Romera, Virginia Iglesias, S. Yoshi Maezumi, Brian Magi, Colin J. Courtney Mustaphi, and Tonishtan Zhihai
Biogeosciences, 13, 3225–3244, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-3225-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-3225-2016, 2016
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We reconstruct spatiotemporal variations in biomass burning since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) using the Global Charcoal Database version 3 (including 736 records) and a method to grid the data. LGM to late Holocene burning broadly tracks global and regional climate changes over that interval. Human activities increase fire in the 1800s and then reduce it for most of the 20th century. Burning is now rapidly increasing, particularly in western North America and southeastern Australia.
A. Cohen, C. Campisano, R. Arrowsmith, A. Asrat, A. K. Behrensmeyer, A. Deino, C. Feibel, A. Hill, R. Johnson, J. Kingston, H. Lamb, T. Lowenstein, A. Noren, D. Olago, R. B. Owen, R. Potts, K. Reed, R. Renaut, F. Schäbitz, J.-J. Tiercelin, M. H. Trauth, J. Wynn, S. Ivory, K. Brady, R. O'Grady, J. Rodysill, J. Githiri, J. Russell, V. Foerster, R. Dommain, S. Rucina, D. Deocampo, J. Russell, A. Billingsley, C. Beck, G. Dorenbeck, L. Dullo, D. Feary, D. Garello, R. Gromig, T. Johnson, A. Junginger, M. Karanja, E. Kimburi, A. Mbuthia, T. McCartney, E. McNulty, V. Muiruri, E. Nambiro, E. W. Negash, D. Njagi, J. N. Wilson, N. Rabideaux, T. Raub, M. J. Sier, P. Smith, J. Urban, M. Warren, M. Yadeta, C. Yost, and B. Zinaye
Sci. Dril., 21, 1–16, https://doi.org/10.5194/sd-21-1-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/sd-21-1-2016, 2016
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An initial description of the scientific rationale, drilling and core handling, and initial core description activities of the Hominin Sites and Paleolakes Drilling Project (HSPDP). HSPDP is a large international consortium whose objective is to collect cores from lakebeds in proximity to important fossil early human fossil sites in eastern Africa, to better understand the environmental and climatic context of human evolution.
M. Tuthorn, R. Zech, M. Ruppenthal, Y. Oelmann, A. Kahmen, H. F. del Valle, T. Eglinton, K. Rozanski, and M. Zech
Biogeosciences, 12, 3913–3924, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-3913-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-3913-2015, 2015
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Stable water isotopes (18O/16O and 2H/1H) are invaluable proxies for paleoclimate research. Here we use a coupled 18O/16O and 2H/1H biomarker approach based on plant-derived sugars and n-alkanes. Applying this innovative approach to a topsoil transect allows for (i) calculating the deuterium-excess of leaf water as a proxy for relative humidity and (ii) calculating the plant source water isotopic composition (~precipitation). The approach is validated by the presented climate transect results.
M. Zech, R. Zech, K. Rozanski, A. Hemp, G. Gleixner, and W. Zech
Biogeosciences Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/bgd-11-7823-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/bgd-11-7823-2014, 2014
Preprint withdrawn
V. Foerster, A. Junginger, A. Asrat, H. F. Lamb, M. Weber, J. Rethemeyer, U. Frank, M. C. Brown, M. H. Trauth, and F. Schaebitz
Clim. Past Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/cpd-10-977-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/cpd-10-977-2014, 2014
Revised manuscript not accepted
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Paul D. Zander, Stefanie B. Wirth, Adrian Gilli, Sandro Peduzzi, and Martin Grosjean
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Faecal biomarker analyses present a useful tool in geoarcheological research. For a better understanding of the lives of our ancestors in alpine regions, we investigated modern livestock faeces and Holocene soils at the prehistorical encampment site of Ullafelsen in the Fotsch Valley, Stubai Alps, Austria. Initial results show a high input of livestock faeces and a negligible input of human faeces for this archeological site. Future studies will focus on mire archives in the Fotsch Valley.
Blanca Ausín, Negar Haghipour, Elena Bruni, and Timothy Eglinton
Biogeosciences, 19, 613–627, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-613-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-613-2022, 2022
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The preservation and distribution of alkenones – organic molecules produced by marine algae – in marine sediments allows us to reconstruct past variations in sea surface temperature, primary productivity and CO2. Here, we explore the impact of remobilization and lateral transport of sedimentary alkenones on their fate in marine sediments. We demonstrate the pervasive influence of these processes on alkenone-derived environmental signals, compromising the reliability of related paleorecords.
Kate E. Ashley, Xavier Crosta, Johan Etourneau, Philippine Campagne, Harry Gilchrist, Uthmaan Ibraheem, Sarah E. Greene, Sabine Schmidt, Yvette Eley, Guillaume Massé, and James Bendle
Biogeosciences, 18, 5555–5571, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-5555-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-5555-2021, 2021
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We explore the potential for the use of carbon isotopes of algal fatty acid as a new proxy for past primary productivity in Antarctic coastal zones. Coastal polynyas are hotspots of primary productivity and are known to draw down CO2 from the atmosphere. Reconstructions of past productivity changes could provide a baseline for the role of these areas as sinks for atmospheric CO2.
Pierre Véquaud, Sylvie Derenne, Alexandre Thibault, Christelle Anquetil, Giuliano Bonanomi, Sylvie Collin, Sergio Contreras, Andrew T. Nottingham, Pierre Sabatier, Norma Salinas, Wesley P. Scott, Josef P. Werne, and Arnaud Huguet
Biogeosciences, 18, 3937–3959, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-3937-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-3937-2021, 2021
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A better understanding of past climate variations is essential to apprehend future climatic changes. The aim of this study is to investigate the applicability of specific organic compounds of bacterial origin, 3-hydroxy fatty acids (3-OH FAs), as temperature and pH proxies at the global level using an extended soil dataset. We show the major potential of 3-OH FAs as such proxies in terrestrial environments through the different models presented and their application for palaeoreconstruction.
Inken Heidke, Adam Hartland, Denis Scholz, Andrew Pearson, John Hellstrom, Sebastian F. M. Breitenbach, and Thorsten Hoffmann
Biogeosciences, 18, 2289–2300, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-2289-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-2289-2021, 2021
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We analyzed lignin oxidation products (LOPs) in leaf litter and different soil horizons as well as dripwater and flowstone samples from four different cave sites from different vegetation zones in New Zealand using liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry. We test whether the original source-dependent LOP signal of the overlying vegetation is preserved and can be recovered from flowstone samples and investigate how the signal is altered by the transport from the soil to the cave.
Milan L. Teunissen van Manen, Boris Jansen, Francisco Cuesta, Susana León-Yánez, and William D. Gosling
Biogeosciences, 17, 5465–5487, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-17-5465-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-17-5465-2020, 2020
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We measured plant wax in leaves and soils along an environmental gradient in the Ecuadorian Andes. These data show how the wax composition changes as the plant material degrades in different environments. Local temperature is reflected in the wax despite the level degradation. The study results warrant further research into a possible causal relationship that may lead to the development of n-alkane patterns as a novel palaeoecological proxy.
Bingbing Wei, Guodong Jia, Jens Hefter, Manyu Kang, Eunmi Park, Shizhu Wang, and Gesine Mollenhauer
Biogeosciences, 17, 4489–4508, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-17-4489-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-17-4489-2020, 2020
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This research reports the applicability of four organic temperature proxies (U37K', LDI, TEX86H, and RI-OH) to the northern South China Sea shelf. The comparison with local sea surface temperature (SST) indicates the impact of terrestrial input on LDI, TEX86H, and RI-OH proxies near the coast. After excluding samples influenced by terrestrial materials, proxy temperatures exhibit different seasonality, providing valuable tools to reconstruct regional SSTs under different monsoonal conditions.
Jérôme Kaiser, Norbert Wasmund, Mati Kahru, Anna K. Wittenborn, Regina Hansen, Katharina Häusler, Matthias Moros, Detlef Schulz-Bull, and Helge W. Arz
Biogeosciences, 17, 2579–2591, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-17-2579-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-17-2579-2020, 2020
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Cyanobacterial blooms represent a threat to the Baltic Sea ecosystem, causing deoxygenation of the bottom water. In order to understand the natural versus anthropogenic factors driving these blooms, it is necessary to study long-term trends beyond observations. We have produced a record of cyanobacterial blooms since 1860 using organic molecules (biomarkers) preserved in sediments. Cyanobacterial blooms in the Baltic Sea are likely mainly related to temperature variability.
Maria-Elena Vorrath, Juliane Müller, Oliver Esper, Gesine Mollenhauer, Christian Haas, Enno Schefuß, and Kirsten Fahl
Biogeosciences, 16, 2961–2981, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-16-2961-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-16-2961-2019, 2019
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The study highlights new approaches in the investigation of past sea ice in Antarctica to reconstruct the climate conditions in earth's history and reveal its future development under global warming. We examined the distribution of organic remains from different algae at the Western Antarctic Peninsula and compared it to fossil and satellite records. We evaluated IPSO25 – the sea ice proxy for the Southern Ocean with 25 carbon atoms – as a useful tool for sea ice reconstructions in this region.
Manuel Reinhardt, Walter Goetz, Jan-Peter Duda, Christine Heim, Joachim Reitner, and Volker Thiel
Biogeosciences, 16, 2443–2465, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-16-2443-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-16-2443-2019, 2019
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Organic matter in Archean hydrothermal cherts may contain molecular traces of early life. Alteration processes during and after deposition, however, may have obliterated potential biosignatures. Our results from modern analog samples (Pleistocene cherts from Lake Magadi, Kenya) show that biomolecules can survive early hydrothermal destruction in the macromolecular fraction of the organic matter. A conservation of molecular biosignatures in Archean hydrothermal cherts therefore seems possible.
Darci Rush, Helen M. Talbot, Marcel T. J. van der Meer, Ellen C. Hopmans, Ben Douglas, and Jaap S. Sinninghe Damsté
Biogeosciences, 16, 2467–2479, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-16-2467-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-16-2467-2019, 2019
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Sapropels are layers of sediment that regularly occur in the Mediterranean. They indicate periods when the Mediterranean Sea water contained no oxygen, a gas vital for most large organisms. This research investigated a key process in the nitrogen cycle (anaerobic ammonium oxidation, anammox), which removes nitrogen – an important nutrient to algae – from the water, during sapropel events. Using lipids to trace this process, we found that anammox was active during the no-oxygen times.
Inken Heidke, Denis Scholz, and Thorsten Hoffmann
Biogeosciences, 15, 5831–5845, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-15-5831-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-15-5831-2018, 2018
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We developed a sensitive method to analyze the lignin composition of organic traces contained in speleothems. Lignin is a main constituent of woody plants and its composition contains information about the type of vegetation. This method offers new possibilities to reconstruct the vegetation of past millennia since it combines the advantages of lignin analysis as a highly specific vegetation biomarker with the benefits of speleothems as unique terrestrial climate archives.
Jan-Peter Duda, Volker Thiel, Thorsten Bauersachs, Helge Mißbach, Manuel Reinhardt, Nadine Schäfer, Martin J. Van Kranendonk, and Joachim Reitner
Biogeosciences, 15, 1535–1548, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-15-1535-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-15-1535-2018, 2018
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The origin of organic matter in the oldest rocks on Earth is commonly ambiguous (biotic vs. abiotic). This problem culminates in the case of hydrothermal chert veins that contain abundant organic matter. Here we demonstrate a microbial origin of kerogen embedded in a 3.5 Gyr old hydrothermal chert vein. We explain this finding with the large-scale redistribution of biomass by hydrothermal fluids, emphasizing the interplay between biological and abiological processes on the early Earth.
Wenjie Xiao, Yinghui Wang, Shangzhe Zhou, Limin Hu, Huan Yang, and Yunping Xu
Biogeosciences, 13, 5883–5894, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-5883-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-5883-2016, 2016
Kimberley L. Davies, Richard D. Pancost, Mary E. Edwards, Katey M. Walter Anthony, Peter G. Langdon, and Lidia Chaves Torres
Biogeosciences, 13, 2611–2621, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-2611-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-2611-2016, 2016
J. Holtvoeth, D. Rushworth, H. Copsey, A. Imeri, M. Cara, H. Vogel, T. Wagner, and G. A. Wolff
Biogeosciences, 13, 795–816, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-795-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-795-2016, 2016
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Lake Ohrid is situated in the southern Balkans between Albania and Macedonia. It is a unique ecosystem with remarkable biodiversity and a sediment record of past climates that goes back more than a million years. Detailed reconstructions of past climate development and human alteration of the environment require underpinned and so in this study we go the present-day lake vegetation and catchment soils and test new proxies over one of the known recent cooling events of the region 8200 years ago.
T. Larsen, L. T. Bach, R. Salvatteci, Y. V. Wang, N. Andersen, M. Ventura, and M. D. McCarthy
Biogeosciences, 12, 4979–4992, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-4979-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-4979-2015, 2015
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A tiny fraction of marine algae escapes decomposition and is buried in sediments. Since tools are needed to track the fate of algal organic carbon, we tested whether naturally occurring isotope variability among amino acids from algae and bacteria can be used as source diagnostic fingerprints. We found that isotope fingerprints track algal amino acid sources with high fidelity across different growth conditions, and that the fingerprints can be used to quantify bacterial amino acids in sediment.
S. Ding, Y. Xu, Y. Wang, Y. He, J. Hou, L. Chen, and J.-S. He
Biogeosciences, 12, 3141–3151, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-3141-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-3141-2015, 2015
P. Sepúlveda, J. P. Le Roux, L. E. Lara, G. Orozco, and V. Astudillo
Biogeosciences, 12, 1993–2001, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-1993-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-1993-2015, 2015
F. Peterse, C. M. Moy, and T. I. Eglinton
Biogeosciences, 12, 933–943, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-933-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-933-2015, 2015
C. Zell, J.-H. Kim, M. Balsinha, D. Dorhout, C. Fernandes, M. Baas, and J. S. Sinninghe Damsté
Biogeosciences, 11, 5637–5655, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-11-5637-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-11-5637-2014, 2014
M. Blumenberg, C. Berndmeyer, M. Moros, M. Muschalla, O. Schmale, and V. Thiel
Biogeosciences, 10, 2725–2735, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-10-2725-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-10-2725-2013, 2013
Y. Lu, Y. Hautevelle, and R. Michels
Biogeosciences, 10, 1943–1962, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-10-1943-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-10-1943-2013, 2013
M. Blumenberg and F. Wiese
Biogeosciences, 9, 4139–4153, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-9-4139-2012, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-9-4139-2012, 2012
D. Rush, E. C. Hopmans, S. G. Wakeham, S. Schouten, and J. S. Sinninghe Damsté
Biogeosciences, 9, 2407–2418, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-9-2407-2012, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-9-2407-2012, 2012
M. D. Wolhowe, F. G. Prahl, I. Probert, and M. Maldonado
Biogeosciences, 6, 1681–1694, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-6-1681-2009, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-6-1681-2009, 2009
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Short summary
With regard to global warming, an understanding of past temperature changes is becoming increasingly important. Branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (brGDGTs) are membrane lipids used globally to reconstruct lake water temperatures. In the Bale Mountains lakes, we find a unique composition of brGDGT isomers. We present a modified local calibration and a new high-altitude temperature reconstruction from the Horn of Africa spanning the last 12.5 kyr.
With regard to global warming, an understanding of past temperature changes is becoming...
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