A coupled calibration and modelling approach to the understanding of dry-land lake oxygen isotope records

Comparisons between climate proxies and instrumental records through the last two centuries are often used to understand better the controls on palaeoarchives and to find relationships that can be used to quantify changes in pre-instrumental climate. Here we compare an 80-year-long annually resolved...

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Main Authors: Jones, Matthew D., Leng, Melanie J., Roberts, C. Neil, Turkes, Murat, Moyeed, Rana
Format: Article
Published: Springer 2005
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/29238/
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author Jones, Matthew D.
Leng, Melanie J.
Roberts, C. Neil
Turkes, Murat
Moyeed, Rana
author_facet Jones, Matthew D.
Leng, Melanie J.
Roberts, C. Neil
Turkes, Murat
Moyeed, Rana
author_sort Jones, Matthew D.
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description Comparisons between climate proxies and instrumental records through the last two centuries are often used to understand better the controls on palaeoarchives and to find relationships that can be used to quantify changes in pre-instrumental climate. Here we compare an 80-year-long annually resolved oxygen isotope record from Nar Gölü, Turkey, a varved lake sequence, with instrumental records of temperature, precipitation, wind speed, relative humidity and calculated values of evaporation, all of which are known to be possible controls on lake oxygen isotope systems. Significant relationships are found between the isotope record and summer temperatures and evaporation suggesting these are dominant controls on the isotope hydrology of this non-outlet lake. Modelling the stable isotope hydrology of the lake system allows these relationships to be tested independently. We show that the isotope record follows the same trends in the temperature and evaporation records but that, even when combined, these two climatic factors cannot fully explain the magnitude of change observed in the isotope record. The models show the lake system is much less sensitive to changes in evaporation and temperature than the climate calibration suggests. Additional factors, including changes in the amount of precipitation, are required to amplify the isotope change. It is concluded that proxy-climate calibrations may incorrectly estimate the amplitude of past changes in individual climate parameters, unless validated independently.
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spelling nottingham-292382020-05-04T20:30:31Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/29238/ A coupled calibration and modelling approach to the understanding of dry-land lake oxygen isotope records Jones, Matthew D. Leng, Melanie J. Roberts, C. Neil Turkes, Murat Moyeed, Rana Comparisons between climate proxies and instrumental records through the last two centuries are often used to understand better the controls on palaeoarchives and to find relationships that can be used to quantify changes in pre-instrumental climate. Here we compare an 80-year-long annually resolved oxygen isotope record from Nar Gölü, Turkey, a varved lake sequence, with instrumental records of temperature, precipitation, wind speed, relative humidity and calculated values of evaporation, all of which are known to be possible controls on lake oxygen isotope systems. Significant relationships are found between the isotope record and summer temperatures and evaporation suggesting these are dominant controls on the isotope hydrology of this non-outlet lake. Modelling the stable isotope hydrology of the lake system allows these relationships to be tested independently. We show that the isotope record follows the same trends in the temperature and evaporation records but that, even when combined, these two climatic factors cannot fully explain the magnitude of change observed in the isotope record. The models show the lake system is much less sensitive to changes in evaporation and temperature than the climate calibration suggests. Additional factors, including changes in the amount of precipitation, are required to amplify the isotope change. It is concluded that proxy-climate calibrations may incorrectly estimate the amplitude of past changes in individual climate parameters, unless validated independently. Springer 2005-10 Article PeerReviewed Jones, Matthew D., Leng, Melanie J., Roberts, C. Neil, Turkes, Murat and Moyeed, Rana (2005) A coupled calibration and modelling approach to the understanding of dry-land lake oxygen isotope records. Journal of Paleolimnology, 34 (3). pp. 391-411. ISSN 0921-2728 Oxygen Isotopes Annual Resolution Modelling Calibration Climate Turkey http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10933-005-6743-0 doi:10.1007/s10933-005-6743-0 doi:10.1007/s10933-005-6743-0
spellingShingle Oxygen Isotopes
Annual Resolution
Modelling
Calibration
Climate
Turkey
Jones, Matthew D.
Leng, Melanie J.
Roberts, C. Neil
Turkes, Murat
Moyeed, Rana
A coupled calibration and modelling approach to the understanding of dry-land lake oxygen isotope records
title A coupled calibration and modelling approach to the understanding of dry-land lake oxygen isotope records
title_full A coupled calibration and modelling approach to the understanding of dry-land lake oxygen isotope records
title_fullStr A coupled calibration and modelling approach to the understanding of dry-land lake oxygen isotope records
title_full_unstemmed A coupled calibration and modelling approach to the understanding of dry-land lake oxygen isotope records
title_short A coupled calibration and modelling approach to the understanding of dry-land lake oxygen isotope records
title_sort coupled calibration and modelling approach to the understanding of dry-land lake oxygen isotope records
topic Oxygen Isotopes
Annual Resolution
Modelling
Calibration
Climate
Turkey
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/29238/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/29238/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/29238/