“…In such stalagmites, several authors have suggested the seasonal peak in fluorescence intensity is due to an increased in-flux of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in drip waters during increased autumn leaf litter and rainfall (Borsato et al, 2007;Kwiecien et al, 2022;McGarry and Baker, 2000), or alternately due to fine soil blown into the cave as an aerosol (Fairchild and Baker, 2012;Luetscher et al, 2021). In addition to changes in DOM input, changes in adsorption behavior at the crystal level, induced by variations in environmental and cave conditions such as pH, redox state and cave ventilation, could also cause variations in the incorporation of the fluorescent DOM ( (Ramseyer et al, 1997;Sliwinski et al, 2022). Where the processes driving fluorescent layers can be demonstrated to be annual, then fluorescent banding can be exploited as a paleo-seasonality indicator (Ramseyer et al, 1997;Blyth et al, 2008;Sliwinski and Stoll, 2021;Orland et al, 2012) or to improve age models through fluorescent layer counting (Kwiecien et al, 2022).…”