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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Küchler, Rony R, Schefuß, Enno, Beckmann, Britta, Dupont, Lydie M, Wefer, Gerold
Format: Dataset Open Access
Language:en
Published: PANGAEA 2013
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Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.821215
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author Küchler, Rony R
Schefuß, Enno
Beckmann, Britta
Dupont, Lydie M
Wefer, Gerold
author_facet Küchler, Rony R
Schefuß, Enno
Beckmann, Britta
Dupont, Lydie M
Wefer, Gerold
collection Datos científicos de ciencias marinas y ambientales
contents We present a hydrologic reconstruction of the Sahara-Sahel transition, covering the complete last glacial cycle (130 ka), based on a combination of plant-wax-specific hydrogen (dD) and carbon isotopes (d13C). The dD and d13C signatures of long-chain n-alkanes from ODP Site 659 off NW Africa reveal a significant anti-correlation. Complementary to published pollen data, we infer that this plant-wax signal reflects sensitive responses of the vegetation cover to precipitation changes in the Sahel region, as well as varying contributions from biomes north of the Sahara (C3 domain) by North-East Trade Winds (NETW). During arid phases, especially the northern parts of the Sahel likely experienced crucial water stress, which resulted in a pronounced contraction of the vegetation cover, thus reducing the amount of C4 plant waxes from the region. The increase in NETW strength during dry periods further promoted a more pronounced C3-plant-wax signal derived from the North African C3 plant domain. During humid periods, the C4-dominated Sahelian environments spread northward into the Saharan realm, in association with lower NETW inputs of C3 plant waxes. Arid-humid cycles deduced from plant-wax dD are in accordance with concomitant changes in weathering intensity reflected in varying major element distributions. Environmental shifts are generally linked to periods with large fluctuations in Northern Hemisphere summer insolation. During Marine Isotope Stages 2 and 3, when insolation variability was low, coupling of the hydrologic regime to alkenone-based estimates of NE Atlantic sea-surface temperatures becomes apparent.
format Dataset Open Access
id pangaea_https___doi_org_10_1594_PANGAEA_821215
institution PANGAEA
language en
publishDate 2013
publisher PANGAEA
record_format pangaea
spellingShingle Plant-wax, alkenone and major element analyses of ODP Site 659 for the Last Glacial cycle and associated coretop data
Küchler, Rony R
Schefuß, Enno
Beckmann, Britta
Dupont, Lydie M
Wefer, Gerold
Center for Marine Environmental Sciences; MARUM; Ocean Drilling Program; ODP
We present a hydrologic reconstruction of the Sahara-Sahel transition, covering the complete last glacial cycle (130 ka), based on a combination of plant-wax-specific hydrogen (dD) and carbon isotopes (d13C). The dD and d13C signatures of long-chain n-alkanes from ODP Site 659 off NW Africa reveal a significant anti-correlation. Complementary to published pollen data, we infer that this plant-wax signal reflects sensitive responses of the vegetation cover to precipitation changes in the Sahel region, as well as varying contributions from biomes north of the Sahara (C3 domain) by North-East Trade Winds (NETW). During arid phases, especially the northern parts of the Sahel likely experienced crucial water stress, which resulted in a pronounced contraction of the vegetation cover, thus reducing the amount of C4 plant waxes from the region. The increase in NETW strength during dry periods further promoted a more pronounced C3-plant-wax signal derived from the North African C3 plant domain. During humid periods, the C4-dominated Sahelian environments spread northward into the Saharan realm, in association with lower NETW inputs of C3 plant waxes. Arid-humid cycles deduced from plant-wax dD are in accordance with concomitant changes in weathering intensity reflected in varying major element distributions. Environmental shifts are generally linked to periods with large fluctuations in Northern Hemisphere summer insolation. During Marine Isotope Stages 2 and 3, when insolation variability was low, coupling of the hydrologic regime to alkenone-based estimates of NE Atlantic sea-surface temperatures becomes apparent.
title Plant-wax, alkenone and major element analyses of ODP Site 659 for the Last Glacial cycle and associated coretop data
topic Center for Marine Environmental Sciences; MARUM; Ocean Drilling Program; ODP
url https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.821215