Articles | Volume 22, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-831-2025
© Author(s) 2025. 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-22-831-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
18 Feb 2025
Research article |
| 18 Feb 2025
| 18 Feb 2025
Locally produced leaf wax biomarkers in the high-altitude Areguni Mountains outweigh downstream transport
Alex Brittingham
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Department of Anthropology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, USA
The Fredy & Nadine Herrmann Institute of Earth Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
Michael T. Hren
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, USA
Samuel Spitzschuch
Department of Anthropology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, USA
Phil Glauberman
Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES–CERCA), Zona Educacional 4, Campus Sescelades URV, Tarragona 43007, Spain
Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Departament d'Història i Història de l'Art, Avinguda de Catalunya 35, Tarragona 43002, Spain
Department of Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology, University of Tübingen, Schloß Hohentübingen, Burgsteige 11, Tübingen 72070, Germany
Yonaton Goldsmith
The Fredy & Nadine Herrmann Institute of Earth Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
Boris Gasparyan
Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Departament d'Història i Història de l'Art, Avinguda de Catalunya 35, Tarragona 43002, Spain
Ariel Malinsky-Buller
The Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
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Nikita Kaushal, Franziska A. Lechleitner, Micah Wilhelm, Khalil Azennoud, Janica C. Bühler, Kerstin Braun, Yassine Ait Brahim, Andy Baker, Yuval Burstyn, Laia Comas-Bru, Jens Fohlmeister, Yonaton Goldsmith, Sandy P. Harrison, István G. Hatvani, Kira Rehfeld, Magdalena Ritzau, Vanessa Skiba, Heather M. Stoll, József G. Szűcs, Péter Tanos, Pauline C. Treble, Vitor Azevedo, Jonathan L. Baker, Andrea Borsato, Sakonvan Chawchai, Andrea Columbu, Laura Endres, Jun Hu, Zoltán Kern, Alena Kimbrough, Koray Koç, Monika Markowska, Belen Martrat, Syed Masood Ahmad, Carole Nehme, Valdir Felipe Novello, Carlos Pérez-Mejías, Jiaoyang Ruan, Natasha Sekhon, Nitesh Sinha, Carol V. Tadros, Benjamin H. Tiger, Sophie Warken, Annabel Wolf, Haiwei Zhang, and SISAL Working Group members
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 1933–1963, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-1933-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-1933-2024, 2024
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Speleothems are a popular, multi-proxy climate archive that provide regional to global insights into past hydroclimate trends with precise chronologies. We present an update to the SISAL (Speleothem Isotopes
Synthesis and AnaLysis) database, SISALv3, which, for the first time, contains speleothem trace element records, in addition to an update to the stable isotope records available in previous versions of the database, cumulatively providing data from 365 globally distributed sites.
Synthesis and AnaLysis) database, SISALv3, which, for the first time, contains speleothem trace element records, in addition to an update to the stable isotope records available in previous versions of the database, cumulatively providing data from 365 globally distributed sites.
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Jérôme Kaiser, Norbert Wasmund, Mati Kahru, Anna K. Wittenborn, Regina Hansen, Katharina Häusler, Matthias Moros, Detlef Schulz-Bull, and Helge W. Arz
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Maria-Elena Vorrath, Juliane Müller, Oliver Esper, Gesine Mollenhauer, Christian Haas, Enno Schefuß, and Kirsten Fahl
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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
Plant molecules, also called biomarkers, are a tool used for reconstructing climates in the past. In this study, we collected soils and stream sediments in a river catchment in Armenia in order to determine how these molecules move before deposition. We found that trees and grasses produce distinct biomarkers, but these are not incorporated equally into stream sediments. Instead, biomarkers from deciduous trees overprint any upstream transport of grass biomarkers.
Plant molecules, also called biomarkers, are a tool used for reconstructing climates in the...
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