Were springline carbonates in the Kurkur-Dungul area (Southern Egypt) deposited during glacial periods?

The tufa deposits in the Kurkur–Dungul area, southern Egypt, date from marine isotope stage (MIS) 11 to MIS 1. Springs across the region were active during glacial periods (with sea-level below –50 m), reflecting changed atmospheric circulation over the Indian Ocean, as well as peak interglacial periods. During times of low sea-level, reduced Indonesian throughflow promoted formation of an Indian Ocean Warm Pool, and anomalous rainfall on its western margin. We suggest that Egypt lies at the intersection of westerly (‘maghrebian’) and easterly (‘mashriqian’) rainfall provinces, which show different timing with relation to orbital forcing and different source water regions. Tufa-growth periods are therefore not mechanistically linked to ‘humid periods’ or ‘sapropel events’ identified elsewhere. Stable isotope and T(Δ47) data are also inconsistent with these spring systems being part of a larger system spanning northern Africa, and lack a clear interaction between northern hemisphere heating and mid-latitude rainfall. We also follow previous researchers in concluding that formation of springline deposit formation was probably delayed compared with rainfall, owing to aquifer flow distances. This delay is unlikely to be sufficient to explain why rainfall is out of phase with movements of the monsoon belts, but may complicate interpretation of these records. Supplementary material: A lithofacies description and supplementary figures and tables are available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.524666

Evaluating model outputs using integrated global speleothem records of climate change since the last glacial

Although quantitative isotopic data from speleothems has been used to evaluate isotope-enabled model simulations, currently no consensus exists regarding the most appropriate methodology through which to achieve this. A number of modelling groups will be running isotope-enabled palaeoclimate simulations in the framework of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6, so it is timely to evaluate different approaches to use the speleothem data for data-model comparisons. Here, we illustrate this using 456 globally-distributed speleothem δ18O records from an updated version of the Speleothem Isotopes Synthesis and Analysis (SISAL) database and palaeoclimate simulations generated using the ECHAM5-wiso isotope-enabled atmospheric circulation model. We show that the SISAL records reproduce the first-order spatial patterns of isotopic variability in the modern day, strongly supporting the application of this dataset for evaluating model-derived isotope variability into the past. However, the discontinuous nature of many speleothem records complicates procuring large numbers of records if data-model comparisons are made using the traditional approach of comparing anomalies between a control period and a given palaeoclimate experiment. To circumvent this issue, we illustrate techniques through which the absolute isotopic values during any time period could be used for model evaluation. Specifically, we show that speleothem isotope records allow an assessment of a model’s ability to simulate spatial isotopic trends. Our analyses provide a protocol for using speleothem isotopic data for model evaluation, including screening the observations to take into account the impact of speleothem mineralogy on 18O values, the optimum period for the modern observational baseline, and the selection of an appropriate time-window for creating means of the isotope data for palaeo time slices

The SISAL database: a global resource to document oxygen and carbon isotope records from speleothems

Stable isotope records from speleothems provide information on past climate changes, most particularly information that can be used to reconstruct past changes in precipitation and atmospheric circulation. These records are increasingly being used to provide “out-of-sample” evaluations of isotope-enabled climate models. SISAL (Speleothem Isotope Synthesis and Analysis) is an international working group of the Past Global Changes (PAGES) project. The working group aims to provide a comprehensive compilation of speleothem isotope records for climate reconstruction and model evaluation. The SISAL database contains data for individual speleothems, grouped by cave system. Stable isotopes of oxygen and carbon (δ 18O, δ 13C) measurements are referenced by distance from the top or bottom of the speleothem. Additional tables provide information on dating, including information on the dates used to construct the original age model and sufficient information to assess the quality of each data set and to erect a standardized chronology across different speleothems. The metadata table provides location information, information on the full range of measurements carried out on each speleothem and information on the cave system that is relevant to the interpretation of the records, as well as citations for both publications and archived data. The compiled data are available at https://doi.org/10.17864/1947.147

Speleothems from the Middle East: An Example of Water Limited Environments in the SISAL Database

The Middle East (ME) spans the transition between a temperate Mediterranean climate in the Levant to hyper-arid sub-tropical deserts in the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula (AP), with the complex alpine topography in the northeast feeding the Euphrates and Tigris rivers which support life in the Southeastern Fertile Crescent (FC). Climate projections predict severe drying in several parts of the ME in response to global warming, making it important to understand the controls of hydro-climate perturbations in the region. Here we discuss 23 ME speleothem stable oxygen isotope (δ18Occ) records from 16 sites from the SISAL_v1 database (Speleothem Isotope Synthesis and Analysis database), which provide a record of past hydro-climatic variability. Sub-millennial changes in ME δ18Occ values primarily indicate changes in past precipitation amounts the result of the main synoptic pattern in the region, specifically Mediterranean cyclones. This pattern is superimposed on change in vapor source δ18O composition. The coherency (or lack thereof) between regional records is reviewed from Pleistocene to present, covering the Last Glacial Maximum (~22 ka), prominent events during deglaciation, and the transition into the Holocene. The available δ18Occ time-series are investigated by binning and normalizing at 25-year and 200-year time windows over the Holocene. Important climatic oscillations in the Holocene are discussed, such as the 8.2 ka, 4.2 ka and 0.7 ka (the Little Ice Age) Before Present events. Common trends in the normalized anomalies are tested against different climate archives. Finally, recommendations for future speleothem-based research in the region are given along with comments on the utility and completeness of the SISAL database

Temperature and Monsoon Tango in a Tropical Stalagmite: Last Glacial-Interglacial Climate Dynamics

High-resolution paleoclimate data on stable isotopes in a stalagmite were coupled to glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (GDGTs). The Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM) transitioned from limited rainfall during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) to intense precipitation during early Holocene (22 to 6 ka). This was associated with changes in stalagmite growth, abundance of branched (br) and isoprenoid (iso) GDGTs, as well as delta O-18, delta C-13, Sr/Ca and GDGT-derived signals providing both temperature and moisture information. The reconstructed mean annual air temperature (MAAT) of the most modern stalagmite sample at similar to 19 degrees C, matches the surface and cave MAAT, but was similar to 4 degrees C lower during LGM. Warming at the end of LGM occurred before ISM strengthened and indicate 6 ka lag consistent with sea surface temperature records. The isotope records during the Younger Dryas show rapid progressions to dry conditions and weak monsoons, but these shifts are not coupled to TEX86. Moreover, change to wetter and stronger ISM, along with warmer Holocene conditions are not continuous indicating a decoupling of local temperatures from ISM.Funding Agencies|SIDA [2009-089]; South African National Research Foundation [93072, 98905]; FAPA project (Los Andes University) [PR.3.2015.2423]; Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan [106-2628-M-002-013, 106-2811-M-002-080]</p

A decadal-resolution stalagmite record of strong Asian summer monsoon from northwestern Vietnam over the Dansgaard–Oeschger events 2–4

Previous paleoclimatic studies by Asian cave records have shown that variability in the Asian summer monsoons is well correlated with local summer insolation, North Atlantic climate, and the Greenland stadial-interstadial cycles on millennial to orbital time-scales. However, it remains unclear whether a similar agreement exists on short timescales. With 230Th dates in precision as good as ±62 years, we present a decadal-resolved δ18O record covering 30.0–22.7 thousand years ago (ka) from a stalagmite of Son La Province, northwestern Vietnam as a proxy record of the Asian summer monsoon (ASM). On millennial timescales, our data show strong coherence with Chinese and North Indian speleothem δ18O records, suggesting that the ASM has synchronously responded over a broad region to Dansgaard–Oeschger (D-O) events in the North Atlantic. We observe that the onset timing and structure of D-O 4 varied spatially. The event commenced earlier and less abrupt at sites located with a connection to the modern Intertropical convergence Zone (ITCZ) than sites off the influence from ITCZ. It implies that the tropics may play a critical role in the global climate system. In addition, our decadal-resolution record clearly demonstrated a few centennial events with a duration of ~200 years, which probably correlates with the Suess cycle of solar activity.Published versio

Abrupt Fluctuation of northern Mediterranean hydroclimate and North Atlantic Oscillation since the middle Holocene

Abrupt Fluctuation of northern Mediterranean hydroclimate and North Atlantic Oscillation since the middle Holocen

Tracking westerly wind directions over Europe since the middle Holocene

International audienceAbstract The variability of the northern westerlies has been considered as one of the key elements for modern and past climate evolution. Their multiscale behavior and underlying control mechanisms, however, are incompletely understood, owing to the complex dynamics of Atlantic sea-level pressures. Here, we present a multi-annually resolved record of the westerly drift over the past 6,500 years from northern Italy. In combination with more than 20 other westerly-sensitive records, our results depict the non-stationary westerly-affected regions over mainland Europe on multi-decadal to multi-centennial time scales, showing that the direction of the westerlies has changed with respect to the migrations of the North Atlantic centers of action since the middle Holocene. Our findings suggest the crucial role of the migrations of the North Atlantic dipole in modulating the westerly-affected domain over Europe, possibly modulated by Atlantic Ocean variability