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Stalagmite Geochemistry and Its Paleoenvironmental Implication
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Stalagmite Geochemistry and Its Paleoenvironmental Implication

A special issue of Minerals (ISSN 2075-163X). This special issue belongs to the section "Mineral Geochemistry and Geochronology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 March 2024) | Viewed by 8940

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Hanying Li

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Global Environmental Change, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, China
Interests: speleothem; mid-late quaternary climate change over Southern Africa and Central America; modern climate analysis; U-Th dating
Dr. Lijuan Sha

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Global Environmental Change, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, China
Interests: geochemistry; triple oxygen isotope; speleothem; cave monitoring

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Speleothems are mineral deposits that gradually accumulate in natural caves over time. Due to their distinct chemical composition, incremental growth, and preservation within enclosed or semi-enclosed caves, speleothems serve as valuable paleoclimatic tools.

The U-Th dating methods of speleothem provide a precise age control and chronology benchmark for crucial events. The geochemistry analysis based on speleothems, such as isotope records, trace element records, fluid inclusion, and organic geochemistry analysis, provides various possibilities to better understand the paleoclimate/ paleoenvironment change. Additionally, the proxy in speleothem can also indicate the mineral transformation, such as the transformation from aragonite to calcite or the transition from calcite to aragonite.

This Special Issue calls for papers including, but not limited to, the following: (1) cave monitoring work showing the modern processes; (2) the imprints of neomorphic processes on the secondary deposited calcite; (3) the new perspectives on speleothem proxies interpretation; (4) case studies with proxy records based on speleothem to better understand the local and broad paleoclimate change; (5) data cross-comparison among speleothem records, proxies from other depositions and model results.

This Special Issue aims to contribute to the disclosure of all the applications of speleothem and its paleoenvironmental implication.

We thank you and look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Hanying Li
Dr. Lijuan Sha
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Minerals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • speleothem geochemistry
  • paleoclimate change
  • cave monitoring
  • neomorphic processes
  • proxy interpretation

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Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 4545 KiB  
Article
Reevaluating Hendy Test with Modern Cave Calcite from the Monsoon Region of China
by Lijun Tian, Tao Tao, Wuhui Duan, Jiaoyang Ruan, Chaoyong Hu, Yunxia Li, Xianglei Li, Hai Cheng and Ming Tan
Minerals 2024, 14(8), 747; https://doi.org/10.3390/min14080747 - 25 Jul 2024
Viewed by 1097
Abstract
The Hendy Test is widely used for assessing whether isotopic equilibrium was reached in speleothems by examining the δ18O and δ13C correlation along a single growth layer. However, stalagmite micro-layers are typically only a few micrometers thick and taper [...] Read more.
The Hendy Test is widely used for assessing whether isotopic equilibrium was reached in speleothems by examining the δ18O and δ13C correlation along a single growth layer. However, stalagmite micro-layers are typically only a few micrometers thick and taper off from the center towards the sides, making it challenging to sample within the same growth layer in practice. To address this, we selected three caves in the monsoon region of China (Shihua Cave in the north, Heshang Cave in the central, and Baojinggong Cave in the south) to verify whether the modern cave calcite has reached equilibrium fractionation with drip water. We examined the spatial variations in the δ18O and δ13C values of farmed calcite on glass plates, which are analogous to a single growth layer. The δ18O and δ13C correlations of farmed calcite from different cave sites are consistently strong, suggesting that kinetic fractionation effects are prevalent, especially at the drip sites with lower drip rates due to longer CO2 degassing. The δ18O–δ13C covariations can also occur along speleothem growth axes on short time scales, while isotopic variations over longer time scales are still in response to climate change. We propose that the Hendy Test criteria might not be prerequisites to isotopic equilibrium, and a Replication Test provides a more reliable indication of the integrity of isotopic proxies in paleoclimate research. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Stalagmite Geochemistry and Its Paleoenvironmental Implication)
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10 pages, 2223 KiB  
Article
Hydroclimate and Paleoenvironmental Variability from the Tonle Sap Lake Basin during the Angkor Period
by Xinnan Zhao, Jian Wang, Wei Zhao and Hai Cheng
Minerals 2024, 14(6), 581; https://doi.org/10.3390/min14060581 - 31 May 2024
Viewed by 939
Abstract
The profound impact of the Khmer Empire on Southeast Asia renders the Angkor Period particularly significant in guiding contemporary societies to advocate and promote policies that respond to climate change. We present a new continuous multi-proxy speleothem dataset from Tonle Sap Lake Basin, [...] Read more.
The profound impact of the Khmer Empire on Southeast Asia renders the Angkor Period particularly significant in guiding contemporary societies to advocate and promote policies that respond to climate change. We present a new continuous multi-proxy speleothem dataset from Tonle Sap Lake Basin, investigating hydroclimate variability and the paleoenvironment of Cambodia during the Angkor Period from the 9th to 15th centuries. In addition, two important climatic events on a decadal scale are clearly reconstructed. The first is the reduction of precipitation between 800 and 1000 AD and the relatively significant drought that the regional environment may have experienced from 950 to 1000 AD. The second is the anomalous wet period between 1000 and 1200 AD, during which the Southern Oscillation Index also reached its negative peak after a thousand years. The wet and dry conditions are highly consistent with the El Niño-dominated and northward Intertropical Convergence Zone. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Stalagmite Geochemistry and Its Paleoenvironmental Implication)
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9 pages, 2560 KiB  
Article
The Measurement Reliability of δ13C of Dissolved Organic Carbon: A Validation for Speleothem Samples
by Gang Xue, Yanjun Cai, Peng Cheng, Le Ma, Xing Cheng, Shouyi Huang and Yanbin Lu
Minerals 2024, 14(5), 454; https://doi.org/10.3390/min14050454 - 25 Apr 2024
Viewed by 1158
Abstract
The carbon isotopic composition of dissolved organic carbon (δ13CDOC) in speleothems, based on high-precision U-Th ages, has great potential to reconstruct past ecology, microbial activity, and carbon cycling. Identifying the reliability of the pretreatment and measurement of speleothem δ [...] Read more.
The carbon isotopic composition of dissolved organic carbon (δ13CDOC) in speleothems, based on high-precision U-Th ages, has great potential to reconstruct past ecology, microbial activity, and carbon cycling. Identifying the reliability of the pretreatment and measurement of speleothem δ13CDOC is therefore essential to putting it into practice. Actually, we have previously verified the reliability of the method for speleothem δ13CDOC measurements. However, it was only based on the final δ13CDOC values of homogeneous speleothem powder and is unable to evaluate the effects of different experimental conditions and the impacts of adding acid on δ13CDOC if using speleothem as the study samples. In this study, we used an organic reagent (potassium sorbate) as the study sample and designed a conditional experiment that simulates the protocols for speleothem δ13CDOC analysis and presented the resulting data to inspect the effects of the experimental processes on the analysis of δ13CDOC. The results show that the standard deviation of duplicate samples is 0.1‰, which is close to that of the previous work for organic reagents and water samples, and the results were not affected by different experimental conditions and operation steps (such as adding orthophosphoric acid, digestion time, and storage duration of resulting CO2 in storage vessels), suggesting that this method is robust to detect the speleothem δ13CDOC. Considering the range and standard deviation of results, we proposed that the δ13CDOC record could be used in various studies when the amplitudes of the δ13CDOC record are larger than 0.1‰, especially greater than 0.4‰. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Stalagmite Geochemistry and Its Paleoenvironmental Implication)
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14 pages, 5235 KiB  
Article
A Highly Resolved Speleothem δ13C Record from Central China and Its Manifestation on Multiple Time Scales during the Last Glacial
by Qingmin Chen, Xing Cheng, Li Deng, Kaikai He, Wenshuo Zhang, Gang Xue, Zeke Zhang, Le Ma, Gaohong Wang, Hai Cheng and R. Lawrence Edwards
Minerals 2024, 14(5), 450; https://doi.org/10.3390/min14050450 - 25 Apr 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1742
Abstract
Speleothem δ13C in monsoonal China differs from speleothem δ18O, which is widely used as a climatic proxy for several complex control reasons. Nevertheless, δ13C records have the potential to reveal the implications of hydroclimatic changes. This study [...] Read more.
Speleothem δ13C in monsoonal China differs from speleothem δ18O, which is widely used as a climatic proxy for several complex control reasons. Nevertheless, δ13C records have the potential to reveal the implications of hydroclimatic changes. This study reports a speleothem δ13C record from Didonghe (DDH) Cave in central China spanning 34 to 13 kyr BP. After we investigated the factors that influence speleothem δ13C, we found that the δ13C record showed that DDH Cave can prompt directional shifts via local hydroclimatic changes, such as in vegetation types, biomass, and rock–water interaction processes, suggesting that δ13C is mainly controlled by the local hydroclimate. Ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) results revealed a coupling relationship between δ18O and δ13C on multiple timescales, which suggested that changes in precipitation caused by large-scale monsoonal circulation are controlled by regional hydrological conditions to a great extent. However, the hydrological conditions of the cave were relatively mild and humid during the last glacial maximum (LGM), which revealed the impact of evaporation on changes in the region’s hydrological conditions. We also found that the δ18O and δ13C profiles decoupled when δ13C changed with a shift in the location of the westerly during HS1. The δ13C record correlates well with other paleoclimate records, suggesting that regional hydrological conditions are also modulated by the Earth’s internal and external driving factors. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Stalagmite Geochemistry and Its Paleoenvironmental Implication)
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16 pages, 2100 KiB  
Article
Opposite Hydrological Conditions between the Younger Dryas and the 8.2 ka Event Revealed by Stalagmite from Northwest Madagascar in East Africa
by Pengzhen Duan, Hanying Li, Gayatri Kathayat, Haiwei Zhang, Youfeng Ning, Guangyou Zhu and Hai Cheng
Minerals 2024, 14(4), 348; https://doi.org/10.3390/min14040348 - 27 Mar 2024
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1592
Abstract
As prominent abrupt climatic events during the last deglaciation and the early Holocene, the Younger Dryas (YD) and the 8.2 ka events have been intensely discussed to reveal the relationship between their phases and intensities, and their underlying mechanisms based on massive marine [...] Read more.
As prominent abrupt climatic events during the last deglaciation and the early Holocene, the Younger Dryas (YD) and the 8.2 ka events have been intensely discussed to reveal the relationship between their phases and intensities, and their underlying mechanisms based on massive marine and terrestrial archives. However, the related paleoclimate records with sufficient resolution and/or precise age constraints from the Southern Hemisphere, especially East Africa, are relatively sparse, hindering our comprehensive understanding about the phases of these two events. Here, we provide a precisely dated record of an aragonite-calcite stalagmite covering 11.3–13.5 ka BP from northwest Madagascar to unravel the arid conditions during the YD, in contrast to the pluvial conditions in the 8.2 ka event that has been evidenced before. Changes in austral summer precipitation related to the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) have always been interpreted to be the primary means of controlling regional rainfall amounts and thus the δ18O variations in stalagmite. However, ITCZ’s meridional migration alone is not enough to interpret the opposite hydroclimatic conditions during the YD and the 8.2 ka events in northwest Madagascar. The variation in convection intensity within the ITCZ combined with the rainfall dipole mode in East Africa, and the redistribution of the duration of the ITCZ’s presence at different latitudes might be responsible for this phenomenon. In addition, sea surface temperature could play a nonnegligible role. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Stalagmite Geochemistry and Its Paleoenvironmental Implication)
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12 pages, 3274 KiB  
Article
Multidecadal Monsoon Variations during the Early Last Deglaciation Revealed by Speleothem Record from Southwestern China
by Yijia Liang, Zhenqiu Zhang, Jinbiao Li, Bin Zhao, Quan Wang, Yongjin Wang and Hai Cheng
Minerals 2024, 14(4), 346; https://doi.org/10.3390/min14040346 - 27 Mar 2024
Viewed by 1301
Abstract
The Asian monsoon (AM) has direct and profound effects on the livelihoods of residents in South Asia and East Asia. Modern observations have shown multi-decadal alternations of flood and drought periods in these regions, likely influenced by climatic processes such as the Atlantic [...] Read more.
The Asian monsoon (AM) has direct and profound effects on the livelihoods of residents in South Asia and East Asia. Modern observations have shown multi-decadal alternations of flood and drought periods in these regions, likely influenced by climatic processes such as the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation. However, our understanding of the multi-decadal variability of the AM under different climatic conditions remains uncertain. In this study, we collected an annually laminated and 780-mm stalagmite (sample number: BJ7) from Binjia (BJ) Cave in southwestern China, which is deeply influenced by the Asian monsoon system. Based on this sample, we established 6-year resolution and multi-proxy records for the Asian summer monsoon (ASM) variabilities during the early last termination, spanning from 18.2 to 16.1 ka BP. Measurements of five pairs of uranium and thorium solutions for 230Th dating were conducted using a multi-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (MC-ICP- MS), and 374 pairs of stable isotope (δ18O and δ13C) analyses were run on a Kiel Carbonate Device connected with Finnigan MAT-253 at Nanjing Normal University. The chronology for this sample was established by annual layer counting anchored with 230Th dating results. Our BJ7 δ18O record replicates well with other Chinese δ18O records on the general trend, all of which are superimposed by frequent multidecadal-scale fluctuations at approximately 60 years periodicity. Inspection of the 60-year band in BJ7 δ18O and δ13C records and results of the cross-wavelet analysis indicate coherent changes in the ASM and biomass production/karst processes during most of the studied period. In addition, the 60-year band of BJ7 and NGRIP δ18O records are consistent, implying the impacts of the high-latitude North Atlantic or Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation on the ASM. Our study suggests that the 60-year variability should be an intrinsic feature of the climate system regardless of glacial or interglacial backgrounds. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Stalagmite Geochemistry and Its Paleoenvironmental Implication)
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