Galapagos hydroclimate of the Common Era from paired microalgal and mangrove biomarker 2H/1H values.

ABSTRACT: Tropical maritime precipitation affects global atmospheric circulation, influencing storm tracks and the size and location of subtropical deserts. Paleoclimate evidence suggests centuries-long changes in rainfall in the tropical Pacific over the past 2,000 y, but these remain poorly characterized across most of the ocean where long, continuous proxy records capable of resolving decadal-to-centennial climate changes are still virtually nonexistent despite substantial efforts to develop them. Here we apply a new climate proxy based on paired hydrogen isotope ratios from microalgal and mangrove-derived sedimentary lipids in the Galápagos to reconstruct maritime precipitation changes during the Common Era. We show that increased rainfall during the Little Ice Age (LIA) (∼1400-1850 CE) was like

SUBMITTER: Nelson DB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4822634 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature