Very high-frequency and seasonal cave atmosphere PCO2 variability: Implications for stalagmite growth and oxygen isotope-based paleoclimate records

Baldini, James U.L.; McDermott, Frank; Hoffmann, Dirk L.; Richards, David A.; Clipson, Nicholas

doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2008.04.031

Cited by 163 publications

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“…Existing empirical relationships between cave environmental parameters, such as cave atmosphere temperature and pCO 2 (CO 2 partial pressure), and stalagmite growth rate appear robust Baldini et al, 2008;Genty et al, 2001) and recent studies have attempted to quantify the effects of cave processes, such as ventilation, on stalagmite growth and net geochemical proxy records (Sherwin and Baldini, 2011;Wong et al, 2011). Previous speleothem growth studies include modelled spatial variability based on 'snapshot' cave atmosphere CO 2 concentration maps (Baldini et al, 2006b;) and comparisons of modelled and actual growth rates.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recent research has characterised their spatio-temporal variability at certain sites (Banner et al, 2007;) and, in particular, highlighted the importance of cave atmosphere pCO 2 dynamics for speleothem palaeoclimatology (Baldini et al, 2008;Fairchild et al, 2006). Although interpreting climatic variability from stalagmite morphology alone is challenging (Dreybrodt, 1988), understanding the physical controls on stalagmite growth, such as drop volume and dripwater film thickness, is necessary for proper linkage of local climate variability, cave environment systematics, and stalagmite growth behaviour.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(ii) High vertical extension rates are conducive to generating highresolution geochemical proxy datasets from stalagmites, yet to-date few studies have characterised stalagmite growth on intra-annual to decadal timescales and its implications for geochemical climate signal capture. (iii) Seasonal growth rate fluctuations potentially bias net proxy signals towards the season favourable to deposition (Baldini et al, 2008;Banner et al, 2007;Fairchild et al, 2006;Frisia et al, 2000;Mattey et al, 2008;Spötl et al, 2005). (iv) Growth rate variability may be related to climate signal modification by other processes, such as biomass change above the cave (e.g., Baldini et al, 2005) and surface and epikarst hydrology Bradley et al, 2010;Darling, 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Reconstructing modern stalagmite growth from cave monitoring, local meteorology, and experimental measurements of dripwater films

Baker

Mattey

Baldini

2014

Earth and Planetary Science Letters

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. (2014) 'Reconstructing modern stalagmite growth from cave monitoring, local meteorology, and experimental measurements of dripwater lms.', Earth and planetary science letters., 392 . pp. 239-249. Further information on publisher's website:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2014.02.036Publisher's copyright statement: NOTICE: this is the author's version of a work that was accepted for publication in Earth and Planetary Science Letters. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be re ected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A de nitive version was subsequently published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 392, 15 April 2014, 10.1016/j.epsl.2014 Additional information: Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-pro t purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. AbstractInterpretations of high-resolution proxy datasets from stalagmites require support from longterm cave monitoring data and quantified changes in sample growth rate. One cave site for which the modern climate signal transfer systematics are relatively well characterised by cave monitoring is New St Michael's Cave, Gibraltar. This site provides a rare opportunity to reconstruct modern calcite growth, to link growth with the cave environment and local climate, and to test the sufficiency of existing growth rate theory on monthly to inter-annual timescales. Here, we use a numerical time-series growth rate model, driven by cave monitoring and local meteorological data, and the results of an experimental investigation into variation in dripwater film thickness as a function of stalagmite apex morphology to reconstruct the modern growth (AD 1951(AD -2004 of 'Gib04a', a stalagmite retrieved from New St Michael's Cave. Our experimental measurements demonstrate that dripwater film thickness decreases linearly with increasing stalagmite curvature and that the presence of millimetre-scale surface microtopography reduces film thickness by an order of magnitude. We identified changes in growth laminae curvature from a Gib04a cut section to determine film thickness variability through time and combined this with estimated dripwater [Ca 2+ ] and cave air pCO 2 seasonality to drive the model. Our reconstruction exhibits strong seasonality and tracks variability in calcite [Sr 2+ ], a trace metal whose incorporation into calcite is partially growth rate-controlled. Reconstructed growth also shows co-variation with seasonal changes in calc...

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Reconstructing modern stalagmite growth from cave monitoring, local meteorology, and experimental measurements of dripwater films

Baker

Mattey

Baldini

2014

Earth and Planetary Science Letters

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“…The EC characteristics of each drip can then vary on a sitespecific basis according to variations in water residence time within the aquifer (Miorandi et al, 2010, Sherwin and Baldini, 2011), the extent of aquifer mixing (Genty and Deflandre 1998) and potentially prior calcite precipitation (PCP) (Fairchild et al, 2000, Fairchild et al, 2006, Sherwin and Baldini, 2011 (Spotl et al, 2005, Baldini et al, 2008, Tremaine et al, 2011, Wong et al, 2011). An increase in cave air pCO 2 acts to suppress the normal rate of CO 2 degassing from drip waters and in so doing limits the supersaturation of percolating waters.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As karst waters emerge into a cave void, degassing of CO 2 from drip waters is driven by cave air CO 2 concentration (Spotl et al, 2005, Baldini et al, 2008, Tremaine et al, 2011, Wong et al, 2011). An increase in cave air pCO 2 acts to suppress the normal rate of CO 2 degassing from drip waters and in so doing limits the supersaturation of percolating waters.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Drip water electrical conductivity as an indicator of cave ventilation at the event scale

Smith

Wynn

Barker

et al. 2015

Science of The Total Environment

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The use of speleothems to reconstruct past climatic and environmental change through chemical proxies is becoming increasingly common. Speleothem chemistry is controlled by hydrological and atmospheric processes which vary over seasonal time scales. However, as many reconstructions using speleothem carbonate are now endeavouring to acquire information about precipitation and temperature dynamics at a scale that can capture short term hydrological events, our understanding of within cave processes must match this resolution. Monitoring within Cueva de Asiul (N. Spain) has identified rapid (hourly resolution) changes in drip water electrical conductivity (EC), which is regulated by the pCO 2 in the cave air. Drip water EC is therefore controlled by different modes of cave ventilation. In Cueva de Asiul a combination of density differences, and external pressure changes control ventilation patterns. Density driven changes in cave ventilation occur on a diurnal scale at this site irrespective of season, driven by fluctuations in external temperature across the cave internal temperature threshold. As external temperatures drop below those within the cave low pCO 2 external air enters the void, facilitating the deposition of speleothem carbonate and causing a reduction in measured drip water EC. Additionally, decreases in external pressure related to storm activity act as a secondary ventilation mechanism. Reductions in external air pressure cause a drop in cave air pressure, enhancing karst air draw down, increasing the pCO 2 of the cave and therefore the EC measured within drip waters. EC thereby serves as a first order indicator of cave ventilation, 2 regardless of changes in speleothem drip rates and karst hydrological conditions. High resolution monitoring of cave drip water electrical conductivity reveals the highly sensitive nature of ventilation dynamics within cave environments, and highlights the importance of this for understanding trace element incorporation into speleothem carbonate at the event scale.Keywords: Northern Spain; Cueva de Asiul; speleothem; cave ventilation; cave water chemistry; electrical conductivity. IntroductionSpeleothems are important repositories of palaeoclimate information (Fairchild and Baker 2012).Speleothem carbonate chemistry is routinely used to assess large-scale palaeoenvironmental change, as well as offering the ability to identify annual to sub-annual variations in local meteorology (Treble et al., 2003, Wynn et al., 2014 and vegetation dynamics (Borsato et al., 2007; Fairchild et al., 2010).Although there is a wealth of information to be drawn from cave speleothems, interpretation frequently relies upon understanding site specific controls on carbonate deposition (Spotl et al., 2005, Miorandi et al., 2010. For this reason, a greater emphasis is now being placed upon robust high resolution cave monitoring studies, which aid the interpretation of speleothem chemistry through the characterisation of cave environments (Mattey et al., 2010, Wong et al., 2011.Drip wat...

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Model evaluation of the coherence of a common source water oxygen isotopic signal recorded by tree-ring cellulose and speleothem calcite

Managave

2014

Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst.

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O records of the two proxies. When the former is higher than or comparable with the latter, finding one to one correspondence between the d 18 O records of the two proxies could be challenging. Modeling exercise revealed a favorable climatic condition at Jagdalpur (19.08 N, 82.03 E), a potential tropical location for tree ring and speleothem-based climate reconstruction, for inheriting a common source water d 18 O signal in both the proxies. d 18 O records of tree ring and annually resolved speleothem from Jagdalpur could be integrated for the multiproxy climate reconstruction.

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Very high-frequency and seasonal cave atmosphere PCO2 variability: Implications for stalagmite growth and oxygen isotope-based paleoclimate records

Cited by 163 publications

References 42 publications

Reconstructing modern stalagmite growth from cave monitoring, local meteorology, and experimental measurements of dripwater films

Reconstructing modern stalagmite growth from cave monitoring, local meteorology, and experimental measurements of dripwater films

Drip water electrical conductivity as an indicator of cave ventilation at the event scale

Model evaluation of the coherence of a common source water oxygen isotopic signal recorded by tree-ring cellulose and speleothem calcite

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