Isotopes in Palaeoenvironmental ResearchMelanie J. Leng This volume is intended to show how stable isotopes can be applied to understanding the palaeoenvironment. There are chapters on the interpretation of isotopes in water, tree rings, bones and teeth, lake sediments, speleothems and marine sediments. Crucial to the understanding of the environmental signal contained within the isotope composition of different materials is to gain more information about how rainfall isotope compositions are determined by climate. Chapter 1 (Darling et al. ) describes O, H and C stable isotope compositions in the modern day water and aqueous carbon cycles to provide a framework for the interpretation of these isotopes in the past. The chapter on the water cycle divides naturally into a number of sections. The starting point, precipitation, is especially important because it is the precursor to which most O and H isotope proxy studies are attempting to relate. While much is understood about the isotope systematics of precipitation, largely owing to the existence of the IAEA– WMO Global Network for Isotopes in Precipitation (GNIP), important questions remain to be answered in relation to the isotope-temperature gradients of past climatic conditions. The chapter describes the three reservoirs of water sustaining all terrestrial proxies; soil and vadose zone moisture, groundwater, and surface waters. In each reservoir isotope effects intervene to modify to a greater or lesser extent the isotope signature of antecedent precipitation; groundwaters are least affected and surface waters the most. |
Contents
4 | |
4 | 29 |
From precipitation to terrestrial water | 61 |
Isotopes in tree rings | 67 |
Mass spectrometry | 78 |
Data analysis | 93 |
83 | 102 |
Isotopes in bones and teeth | 117 |
Oxygen and hydrogen isotopes in lacustrine organic matter | 173 |
123 | 176 |
Isotopes in speleothems | 185 |
Carbon isotopes in speleothems | 202 |
Summary | 215 |
Isotopes in marine sediments 227 | 226 |
Carbon isotopes in marine sediments | 245 |
Nitrogen isotopes in marine sediments | 259 |
Environmental influences on isotope transport through food chains | 123 |
Application of isotope techniques to bone and teeth | 127 |
Summary | 138 |
Isotopes in lake sediments | 147 |
Carbon isotopes in lacustrine organic matter | 166 |
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Common terms and phrases
8¹³C 8¹³N 815N values 818Olakewater aquifer atmospheric CO2 benthic biogenic bone C3 plants calcite carbon isotope catchment cave cellulose Chem climate change collagen composition of precipitation correlation Cosmochim cycle deposition diatom dissolved Earth Planet effects enrichment environment environmental equation evaporation faunal Figure fluid inclusions foraminifera Geochemistry Geochim Geol Geophys global groundwater Holocene hydrogen isotope Hydrol hydrological ice cores increase inorganic interpretation isotope analysis isotope equilibrium isotope fractionation Isotope Hydrology isotope records isotope studies isotope values lacustrine lake sediments lake water last glacial Leng marine measured meteoric water moisture nitrate nitrogen nitrogen isotope ocean Oecologia organic matter ostracods oxygen isotope oxygen isotope composition palaeoclimate palaeoenvironmental palaeotemperature photosynthesis planktonic plants Pleistocene potential proxy rainfall recharge reconstruction regions relationship relative samples Schwarcz seasonal sediments signal silicic soil species speleothems stable carbon isotope stable isotope stalagmites surface waters TDIC techniques temperature terrestrial tree rings variability variations water isotope water vapour