Abstract
The interpretation of climatic information from stalagmites has traditionally been a complex research problem, with oxygen isotopes playing a particularly important role in global climate change studies. This study investigates the relationship between oxygen isotope composition of the atmospheric in precipitation and cave drip water at Panlong cave in southwest China on seasonal timescales of variability. Time series seasonal variability was derived from Panlong cave in Guilin by collecting daily precipitation samples for stable isotope analysis during 2012. Results indicate that δ18O of precipitation contains a clear seasonal variation whereby higher values are mainly distributed during winter and lower values during summer. Seasonal variations in water sources affect the precipitation δ18O values. Drip water δ18O also displayed a seasonal cycle which is attenuated relative to δ18O of precipitation. Drip water time series display seasonal cycle ranges from 1.5 to 3.5 ‰ relative to Vienna Standard Mean Ocean Water, which mainly follow the precipitation δ18O seasonal cycle. Seasonal variation in drip water δ18O supports interpretations of the stalagmite δ18O record as a paleoclimate proxy sensitive to the local environment. This monitoring experiment revealed that drip water must be transported through the epikarst in approximately 1.5 months during cold periods, and <0.5 months during warm periods. Different residence time percolation is mainly affected by the atmospheric precipitation amount, depending on whether soil moisture reaches saturation.
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Acknowledgments
The study was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 40772216), the Program for Institute of Karst Geology (No. 2012006; No. 2011-sys-14) and the China Geological Survey (No. 12120113005700; No. 121237131300401).
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Wu, X., Zhu, X., Pan, M. et al. Seasonal variability of oxygen and hydrogen stable isotopes in precipitation and cave drip water at Guilin, southwest China. Environ Earth Sci 72, 3183–3191 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-014-3224-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-014-3224-7