Synthesis of oxygen isotope proxies for climate reconstruction in southern Patagonia. Climate Impacts on Glaciers and Biosphere in Fuego-Patagonia

ZOLITSCHKA, B.; MAUAD, M.; LÜCKE, A.; SRUR, A.; MAYR, C.; RODRIGUEZ CATON, M.; MASSAFERRO, J.

Conferencia; Climate Impacts on Glaciers and Biosphere in Fuego-Patagonia; 2017

OXICLIM is a recently launched Argentinean-German scientific initiative intended to synthesize terrestrial climate archives in the area of Los Glaciares national park in Argentinean Patagonia. In particular, oxygen isotope proxies from tree-rings are compared with those of lake sediment along a humidity gradient from the humid Andean Nothofagus forest to the Patagonian steppe. The aim is to provide quantitative climate reconstructions using transfer functions. In the lakes, chironomid head capsules and aquatic cellulose will be used as proxies of the oxygen isotope signal of the lake water. The lake water oxygen isotope composition itself is determined by hydrological constrains, such as the lake water balance and the intensity of the Southern Westerlies. The oxygen isotope composition of tree-rings will be analysed from tree rings of Nothofagus pumilio taken with increment borers. The oxygen-isotope composition of the trees is supposed to be strongly determined by water availability and isotopic composition of the rainwater. Combining both archives, tree-rings and lake sediments, is a novel approach that best can be tested in areas with strong hydrological gradients, such as the eastern flank of the Patagonian Andes.