Landsnail shell S18O records in periglacial loess deposits: New transfer functions for precipitation S18O and temperature in dry continental settings
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2025 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Quaternary Science Reviews |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| web | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109440 |
| Doi | http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109440 |
| Keywords | Landsnail; Quantitative proxy; Climate reconstruction; Paleoclimate; Isotope |
| Attached files | |
| Description | Our knowledge about climate change is based on the availability of climate data from both the present and the past. Accurate reference data are essential for improving Earth System Models, which help us to analyse and predict climatic developments with greater accuracy. In this context, subfossil landsnail shells and their stable isotope compositions are valuable climatic proxies. They are used to derive past precipitation isotopy (?18Oprecipitation), which represents an important reference parametre for climate reconstruction. However, the interpretability of ?18O shell isotopes in periglacial loess deposits has been questioned, due to the complexity of the hydrological cycle in these environments. Calibration studies investigating the relationship between ?18Oshell and ?18Oprecipitation under continental dry conditions are still lacking. To close this gap, we collected two genera commonly found in European loess deposits (Vallonia and Pupilla) at modern dry periglacial sites in continental Inner Asia. Our results confirm a strong positive relationship between ?18Oshell and ?18Oprecipitation of the growing season period (adjR2 = 0.53, p « 0.001). When only Vallonia samples were considered, the relationship was even stronger (adjR2 = 0.60, p « 0.001) indicating a genus-specific response. Our results support the suitability of landsnail shells as proxy for ?18Oprecipitation in dry continental settings. Furthermore, we provide an empirically derived transfer function to reconstruct ?18Oprecipitation from ?18Oshell for periglacial loess archives as well as a transfer function for temperature approximation. This study demonstrates the high potential of shell isotopes as a quantitative climate proxy also for dry continental environments. However, future studies should focus on the resolution of shell isotope data as well as the synchroneity of calibration data, to increase data precision. |
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