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Guano-derived δ13C-based paleo-hydroclimate record from Gaura cu Musca Cave, SW Romania

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An Erratum to this article was published on 22 February 2014

Abstract

The δ13C values of 23 unevenly spaced guano samples from a 17-cm long clay sediment profile in Gaura cu Muscă Cave (GM), in SW Romania, made it possible to preliminarily characterize the Medieval Warm Period summer hydroclimate regime. The beginning of the sequence (AD 990) was rather wet for more than a century, before becoming progressively drier. After a brief, yet distinct wet period around AD 1170, drier conditions, with a possible shift from C3 to a mixed C3-dominated/C4 type vegetation (2 ‰ lower δ13C values), prevailed for almost half a century before the climate became colder and wetter at the onset of the Little Ice Age, when bats left the cave. The guano-inferred wet and dry intervals from the GM Cave are mirrored by changes in the color and amount of clay accumulated in the cave. They also agree well with reconstructions based on pollen and charcoal from peat bogs and δ13C and δ18O on speleothems from other Romanian sites. Overall, these results indicate that the δ13C of bat guano can provide a sensitive record of the short-term coupling between local/regional climate and the plant–insect–bat–guano system.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank the administration of the Porţile de Fier Natural Park for granting permission to recover the guano/clay profile from Gaura cu Muscă Cave. Special thanks to Dr. I. Coroiu for discussing the aspects of bat ecology with the authors. This research was funded by CNCS grant PN-II-ID-PCE 2011-0-0588 to BPO.

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  1. School of Geosciences, University of South Florida, 4202 E. Fowler Ave., NES 107, Tampa, FL, 33620, USA

    Bogdan P. Onac & Jonathan G. Wynn

  2. Department of Geology, Babeş-Bolyai University, Kogălniceanu 1, 400084, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

    Bogdan P. Onac, Ferenc L. Forray & Alexandra M. Giurgiu

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  1. Bogdan P. Onac
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Correspondence to Bogdan P. Onac.

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Onac, B.P., Forray, F.L., Wynn, J.G. et al. Guano-derived δ13C-based paleo-hydroclimate record from Gaura cu Musca Cave, SW Romania. Environ Earth Sci 71, 4061–4069 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-013-2789-x

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