Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-17-2021

Publication Title

Biogeosciences

Abstract

Distributions of branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (brGDGTs) are frequently employed for reconstructing terrestrial paleotemperatures from lake sediment archives. Although brGDGTs are globally ubiquitous, the microbial producers of these membrane lipids remain unknown, precluding a full understanding of the ways in which environmental parameters control their production and distribution. Here, we advance this understanding in three ways. First, we present 43 new high-latitude lake sites characterized by low mean annual air temperatures (MATs) and high seasonality, filling an important gap in the global dataset. Second, we introduce a new approach for analyzing brGDGT data in which compound fractional abundances (FAs) are calculated within structural groups based on methylation number, methylation position, and cyclization number. Finally, we perform linear and nonlinear regressions of the resulting FAs against a suite of environmental parameters in a compiled global lake sediment dataset (ng Combining double low lineg 182). We find that our approach deconvolves temperature, conductivity, and pH trends in brGDGTs without increasing calibration errors from the standard approach. We also find that it reveals novel patterns in brGDGT distributions and provides a methodology for investigating the biological underpinnings of their structural diversity. Warm-season temperature indices outperformed MAT in our regressions, with the mean temperature of months above freezing yielding the highest-performing model (adjusted R2g Combining double low lineg 0.91, RMSEg Combining double low lineg 1.97g g C, ng Combining double low lineg 182). The natural logarithm of conductivity had the second-strongest relationship to brGDGT distributions (adjusted R2g Combining double low lineg 0.83, RMSEg Combining double low lineg 0.66, ng Combining double low lineg 143), notably outperforming pH in our dataset (adjusted R2g Combining double low lineg 0.73, RMSEg Combining double low lineg 0.57, ng Combining double low lineg 154) and providing a potential new proxy for paleohydrology applications. We recommend these calibrations for use in lake sediments globally, including at high latitudes, and detail the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Volume

18

Issue

12

First Page

3579

Last Page

3603

DOI

10.5194/bg-18-3579-2021

ISSN

17264170

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Rights

© Author(s) 2021

Comments

Archived as published.

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Geology Commons

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