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1. Plant Wax Isotopic Reconstructions Reveal Thermodynamic Drivers of Hydroclimate Over the Last Two Glacial Cycles at Great Salt Lake and Bear Lake, Utah

   https://doi.org/10.1029/2025PA005357  

   So, Rachel T; Ibarra, Daniel E; Tierney, Jessica E; Jagniecki, Elliot; Lowenstein, Tim K; Jost, Adam B; Olson, Kristian; McGee, David; Feakins, Sarah J (February 2026, Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology)

   Abstract The growth and decay of the Laurentide ice sheet altered the hydrological cycle over southwestern North America. While it is well‐documented that the last glacial was wetter and had isotopically lighter precipitation, much less information is available for prior glacials. Increased proxy coverage is needed to test climate models' ability to reconstruct these changes and to assess their predictive power for water availability in response to future climate change. Here, we present parallel precipitation isotope records spanning the last two glacial cycles from two large, proximal lakes in Utah, USA: Great Salt Lake and Bear Lake. We use plant waxn‐alkane δD as a proxy for precipitation δD (δD_precip) and find coherent glacial‐interglacial fluctuations in δD_precip, with a ∼30‰ D‐depletion during glacial maxima relative to interglacials. We find similar δD_precipvalues between the Holocene and Eemian, but at the lower‐pCO₂MIS 7 interglacial, D‐enrichment is only weakly recorded at Great Salt Lake and absent at higher elevation Bear Lake. Comparison to regional proxy archives finds large‐scale coherence in regional hydroclimate change over the last two glacial cycles is best explained by thermodynamic processes, with increased rainout efficiency, isotopic fractionation, and snow in a colder atmosphere. Comparison of proxies to climate model experiments showed models considerably underestimate glacial lowering of precipitation isotopic values, but overestimate inland Rayleigh distillation. New and assembled proxy reconstructions provide greater temporal and spatial coverage as targets for model skill in capturing hydroclimate variations across the past two glacial cycles. 

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2. Ground Heat Flux Reconstruction Using Bayesian Uncertainty Quantification Machinery and Surrogate Modeling

   https://doi.org/10.1029/2023EA003435  

   Zhou, Wenbo; Zhang, Liujing; Sheshukov, Aleksey; Wang, Jingfeng; Zhu, Modi; Sargsyan, Khachik; Xu, Donghui; Liu, Desheng; Zhang, Tianqi; Mazepa, Valeriy; et al (March 2024, Earth and Space Science)

   Abstract Ground heat flux (G₀) is a key component of the land‐surface energy balance of high‐latitude regions. Despite its crucial role in controlling permafrost degradation due to global warming,G₀is sparsely measured and not well represented in the outputs of global scale model simulation. In this study, an analytical heat transfer model is tested to reconstructG₀across seasons using soil temperature series from field measurements, Global Climate Model, and climate reanalysis outputs. The probability density functions of ground heat flux and of model parameters are inferred using availableG₀data (measured or modeled) for snow‐free period as a reference. When observedG₀is not available, a numerical model is applied using estimates of surface heat flux (dependent on parameters) as the top boundary condition. These estimates (and thus the corresponding parameters) are verified by comparing the distributions of simulated and measured soil temperature at several depths. Aided by state‐of‐the‐art uncertainty quantification methods, the developedG₀reconstruction approach provides novel means for assessing the probabilistic structure of the ground heat flux for regional permafrost change studies. 

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3. North Temperate Lakes LTER: High Frequency Meteorological and Dissolved Oxygen Data - Sparkling Lake Raft 1989 - current

   https://doi.org/10.6073/pasta/9d054e35fb0b8d3a36b49b5e7a35f48f  

   Magnuson, John J; Carpenter, Stephen R; Stanley, Emily H (January 2023, Environmental Data Initiative)

   The instrumented raft on Sparkling Lake is equipped with a dissolved oxygen and CO2 sensors, a thermistor chain, and meteorological sensors that provide fundamental information on lake thermal structure, weather conditions, evaporation rates, and lake metabolism. Estimating the flux of solutes to and from lakes requires accurate water budgets. Evaporation rates are a critical component of the water budget of lakes. Data from the instrumented raft on Sparkling Lake includes micrometeorological parameters from which evaporation can be calculated. Raft measurements of relative humidity and air temperature (2m height), wind velocity (2m) ,and water temperatures (from thermistors placed throughout the water column at intervals varying from 0.5 to 3m) are combined with measurements of total long-wave and short-wave radiation data from a nearby shore station to determine evaporation by the energy budget technique. Comparable evaporation estimates from mass transfer techniques are calibrated against energy budget estimates to produce a lake-specific mass transfer coefficient for use in estimating evaporation rates. After correcting for flux to or from the atmosphere and vertical mixing within the water column, high frequency measurements of dissolved gases such as carbon dioxide and oxygen can be used to estimate gross primary productivity, respiration, and net ecosystem productivity, the basic components of whole lake metabolism. Other parameters measured include precipitation, wind direction (beginning in 2008), and barometric pressure (beginning in 2008). Sampling Frequency: one minute with hourly and daily averages provided. Number of sites: 1. 

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4. Asymmetric response of Amazon forest water and energy fluxes to wet and dry hydrological extremes reveals onset of a local drought‐induced tipping point

   https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16933  

   Restrepo‐Coupe, Natalia; Christoffersen, Bradley O’Donnell; Longo, Marcos; Alves, Luciana F.; Campos, Kleber Silva; da_Araujo, Alessandro C; de_Oliveira, Raimundo C; Prohaska, Neill; da_Silva, Rodrigo; Tapajos, Raphael; et al (September 2023, Global Change Biology)

   Abstract Understanding the effects of intensification of Amazon basin hydrological cycling—manifest as increasingly frequent floods and droughts—on water and energy cycles of tropical forests is essential to meeting the challenge of predicting ecosystem responses to climate change, including forest “tipping points”. Here, we investigated the impacts of hydrological extremes on forest function using 12+ years of observations (between 2001–2020) of water and energy fluxes from eddy covariance, along with associated ecological dynamics from biometry, at the Tapajós National Forest. Measurements encompass the strong 2015–2016 El Niño drought and La Niña 2008–2009 wet events. We found that the forest responded strongly to El Niño‐Southern Oscillation (ENSO): Drought reduced water availability for evapotranspiration (ET) leading to large increases in sensible heat fluxes (H). PartitioningETby an approach that assumes transpiration (T) is proportional to photosynthesis, we found that water stress‐induced reductions in canopy conductance (G_s) droveTdeclines partly compensated by higher evaporation (E). By contrast, the abnormally wet La Niña period gave higherTand lowerE, with little change in seasonalET. Both El Niño‐Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events resulted in changes in forest structure, manifested as lower wet‐season leaf area index. However, only during El Niño 2015–2016, we observed a breakdown in the strong meteorological control of transpiration fluxes (via energy availability and atmospheric demand) because of slowing vegetation functions (via shutdown ofG_sand significant leaf shedding). Drought‐reducedTandG_s, higherHandE, amplified by feedbacks with higher temperatures and vapor pressure deficits, signaled that forest function had crossed a threshold, from which it recovered slowly, with delay, post‐drought. Identifying such tipping point onsets (beyond which future irreversible processes may occur) at local scale is crucial for predicting basin‐scale threshold‐crossing changes in forest energy and water cycling, leading to slow‐down in forest function, potentially resulting in Amazon forests shifting into alternate degraded states. 

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5. Biomarker Evidence for an MIS M2 Glacial‐Pluvial in the Mojave Desert Before Warming and Drying in the Late Pliocene

   https://doi.org/10.1029/2023PA004687  

   Peaple, Mark D.; Bhattacharya, Tripti; Tierney, Jessica E.; Knott, Jeffrey R.; Lowenstein, Tim K.; Feakins, Sarah J. (January 2024, Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology)

   Abstract Ancient lake deposits in the Mojave Desert indicate that the water cycle in this currently dry place was radically different under past climates. Here we revisit a 700 m core drilled 55 years ago from Searles Valley, California, that recovered evidence for a lacustrine phase during the late Pliocene. We update the paleomagnetic age model and extract new biomarker evidence for climatic conditions from lacustrine deposits (3.373–2.706 Ma). The MBT′_5Metemperature proxy detects present‐day conditions (21 ± 3°C,n = 2) initially, followed by warmer‐than‐present conditions (25 ± 3°C,n = 17) starting at 3.268 and ending at 2.734 Ma. Bacterial and archeal biomarkers reveal lake salinity increased after 3.268 Ma likely reflecting increased evaporation in response to higher temperatures. The δ¹³C values of plant waxes (−30.7 ± 1.4‰,n = 28) are consistent with local C₃taxa, likely expanded conifer woodlands during the pluvial with less C₄than the Pleistocene. δD values (−174 ± 5‰,n = 25) of plant waxes indicate precipitation δD values (−89 ± 5‰,n = 25) in the late Pliocene are within the same range as the late Pleistocene precipitation δD. Microbial biomarkers identify a deep, freshwater lake and a cooling that corresponds to the onset of major Northern Hemisphere glaciation at marine isotope stage marine isotope stages M2 (3.3 Ma). A more saline lake persisted for ∼0.6 Ma across the subsequent warmth of the late Pliocene (3.268–2.734 Ma) before the lake desiccated at the Pleistocene intensification of Northern Hemisphere Glaciation. 

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