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Recent developments in speleothem science are showing their potential for paleofire reconstruction through a variety of inorganic and organic proxies including trace metals (1) and the pyrogenic organic compound levoglucosan (2). Previous work by Argiriadis et al. (2019) presented a method for the analysis of trace polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and n -alkanes in stalagmites (3). These compounds reflect biogeochemical processes occurring at the land surface, in the soil, and in the cave. PAHs are primarily related to combustion of biomass while n-alkanes, with their potential for vegetation reconstruction (4), provide information on fuel availability and composition, as well as fire activity. These organic molecules are carried downward by infiltrating water and incorporated into speleothems (5), thereby creating the potential to serve as novel paleofire archives. Using this approach, we developed a high-resolution stalagmite record of paleofire activity from cave KNI-51 in tropical northwestern Australia. This site is well suited for high resolution paleofire reconstruction as bushfire activity in this tropical savanna is some of the highest on the continent, the cave is shallow and overlain by extremely thin soils, and the stalagmites are fast-growing (1-2 mm yr-1) and precisely dated. We analyzed three stalagmites which grew continuously in different time intervals through the last millennium - KNI-51-F (CE ~1100-1620), KNI-51-G (CE ~1320-1640), and KNI-51-11 (CE ~1750-2009). Samples were drilled continuously at 1-3 mm resolution from stalagmite slabs, processed in a stainless-steel cleanroom to prevent contamination. Despite a difference in resolution between stalagmites KNI-51-F and -G, peaks in the target compounds show good replication in the overlapping time interval of the two stalagmites, and PAH abundances in a portion of stalagmite KNI-51-11 that grew from CE 2000-2009 are well correlated with satellite-mapped fires occurring proximally to the cave. Our results suggest an increase in the frequency of low intensity fire in the 20th century relative to much of the previous millennium. The timing of this shift is broadly coincident with the arrival of European pastoralists in the late 19th century and the subsequent displacement of Aboriginal peoples from the land. Aboriginal peoples had previously utilized “fire stick farming”, a method of prescribed, low intensity burning, that was an important influence of ecology, biomass, and fire. Prior to the late 1800s, the period with the most frequent low intensity fire activity was the 13th century, the wettest interval of the entire record. Peak high intensity fire activity occurred during the 12th century. Controlled burn and irrigation experiments capable of examining the transmission of pyrogenic compounds from the land surface to cave dripwater represent the next step in this analysis. Given that karst is present in many fire-prone environments, and that stalagmites can be precisely dated and grow continuously for millennia, the potential utility of a stalagmite-based paleofire proxy is high. (1) L.K. McDonough et al., Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta. 325, 258–277 (2022). (2) J. Homann et al., Nat. Commun., 13:7175 (2022). (3) E. Argiriadis et al., Anal. Chem. 91, 7007–7011 (2019). (4) R.T. Bush, F. A. McInerney, Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta. 117, 161–179 (2013). (5) Y. Sun et al., Chemosphere. 230, 616–627 (2019). 

Nepal is positioned at the intersection of the Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM) and Subtropical Jet (SJ). Although the ISM is responsible for ~two thirds of annual precipitation, the SJ supplies precipitation in the winter and spring, with the jet migrating southwards to the subcontinent beginning in October and reaching its most southerly position in May before moving northward in June. Using the state-of-the-art Community Earth System Model Last Millennium Ensemble, we investigated potential drivers of the latitudinal position of the SJ over Nepal (referred to as the Himalayan Jet) between 850-2005 CE. The Himalayan Jet Latitude [HJL] is defined as the latitude with the highest wind speed at 200 mb for every longitude containing Nepal (Thapa et al., 2022). In order to identify dominant periodicities in HJL positioning, power-spectral-density analyses were used. For the purpose of evaluating drivers of HJL position, we identified years with a northward or southward displaced HJL, defined as being two standard deviations above or below the average annual HJL position, and used anomaly composites of precipitation, winds (upper- and lower-level), sea surface temperature, moisture transport (lower-level at 850mb), and geopotential height (upper-level at 200mb). Our analyses seem to point toward a link between HJL and the phases of the El Niño Southern Oscillation and Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD): Southerly HJL years often occur during years with an El Niño and a positive IOD event. Northerly HJL years often occur when a Rossby wave train appears to be present over Nepal, indicative of a remote teleconnection. We provide an initial quantification of the physical mechanics of how these climate modes in the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic Oceans, including remote teleconnections transmitted via atmospheric Rossby Waves, affect HJL. These climate model simulation results are also compared with a sub-decadally-resolved, precisely-dated, composite stalagmite isotope record of ISM variability from Siddha Baba cave, central Nepal. 

The Indian Summer Monsoon [ISM] provides approximately 80% of South Asia’s annual average precipitation. Nepal represents a particularly important sector of the ISM because of its location at the base of the Himalayas, Asia’s water tower, and in the zone of influence of the mid-latitude westerlies. Late Holocene ISM variability has previously been examined using high resolution resolved stable isotope records of stalagmites from northern, northeastern, and central India, but as of yet, no such records have been published from Nepal. We present high resolution stable isotopic time series from two precisely-dated and partially overlapping stalagmites spanning the last 2400 years from Siddha Baba Cave, central Nepal, as well as a year of isotopic data from rainwater collected near the cave. It has been suggested that the amount effect has only a minor effect on the oxygen isotope variability in precipitation in this area. As a result, we couple oxygen and carbon isotopes from these stalagmites to examine both regional and local-scale ISM dynamics. The Siddha Baba record reveals two periods suggestive of changes in the ISM: an apparent increase in rainfall during approximately CE 1350-1550 and a reduction in rainfall characterizing the last two centuries. We investigate these intervals using the Last Millennium Ensemble, a state-of-the-art suite of climate model simulations conducted by the National Center for Atmospheric Research with the Community Earth System Model. A primary focus is on links between Indo-Pacific ocean-atmosphere interactions and subsequent changes in the monsoon circulation over the Indian subcontinent, as well as regional moisture transport into Nepal between these periods. 

The Indian Summer Monsoon [ISM] provides approximately 80% of South Asia’s annual average precipitation. Nepal represents a particularly important sector of the ISM because of its location at the base of the Himalayas, Asia’s water tower, and in the zone of influence of the mid-latitude westerlies. Late Holocene ISM variability has previously been examined using high resolution resolved stable isotope records of stalagmites from northern, northeastern, and central India, but as of yet, no such records have been published from Nepal. We present high resolution stable isotopic time series from two precisely-dated and partially overlapping stalagmites spanning the last 2400 years from Siddha Baba Cave, central Nepal, as well as a year of isotopic data from rainwater collected near the cave. It has been suggested that the amount effect has only a minor effect on the oxygen isotope variability in precipitation in this area. As a result, we couple oxygen and carbon isotopes from these stalagmites to examine both regional and local-scale ISM dynamics. The Siddha Baba record reveals two periods suggestive of changes in the ISM: an apparent increase in rainfall during approximately CE 1350-1550 and a reduction in rainfall characterizing the last two centuries. We investigate these intervals using the Last Millennium Ensemble, a state-of-the-art suite of climate model simulations conducted by the National Center for Atmospheric Research with the Community Earth System Model. A primary focus is on links between Indo-Pacific ocean-atmosphere interactions and subsequent changes in the monsoon circulation over the Indian subcontinent, as well as regional moisture transport into Nepal between these periods. 

The Azores High (AH), a subtropical ridge in the atmosphere over the North Atlantic comprising one node of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) system, has a dominant influence on the weather and climate of the Iberian Peninsula and northwest Africa. The behavior of the entire NAO system over the last millennium has been the subject of much debate in both proxy- and model-based studies. Many studies have focused on the behavior of the entire NAO system, but we focus solely on the behavior of the AH due to its proximity to this region. Other proxies from this region, mainly from Spain and Morocco, have provided details about atmospheric dynamics yet spatiotemporal gaps remain. In this study, we present a continuous, sub-decadally-resolved composite stalagmite carbon isotopic record from three partially overlapping stalagmites from Buraca Gloriosa (BG) cave, western Portugal, situated within the center of the AH, that preserves evidence of regional hydroclimate variability from approximately 800 CE to the present. This composite record, developed from U-Th dating and laminae counting paired with carbon isotopes, primarily reflects effective moisture in western Portugal. Given the close pairing of AH behavior (intensity, size, and location) and moisture transport in this region, the BG composite record allows for a thorough analysis of AH behavior over time. Multidecadal to centennial scale variability in the BG record and state-of-the-art last millennium climate model simulations show considerable coherence with precipitation-sensitive records from Spain and Morocco that, like BG, are strongly influenced by the intensity, size, and location of the AH. Synthesis of model output and proxy data suggests that western Portugal was persistently dry during much of the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA; ~850-1250 CE) and Modern era (1850 CE-present) and experienced wetter conditions during Little Ice Age (LIA; ~1400-1850 CE). Even considering age uncertainties from the Iberian Peninsula and northwest Africa proxy records, the apparent timing in the transition from a relatively dry MCA to a wetter LIA is spatially variable across this region, likely due to the non-stationary behavior of the AH system. 

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are produced by the burning of biomass, with molecular weights reflecting combustion conditions. After being formed, PAHs are transported downward through soil and bedrock by infiltrating rainwater (Perrette et al., 2013), and in karst areas can become incorporated into stalagmites as they crystallize from dripwater in underlying caves (Perrette et al., 2008; Denniston et al., 2018). Thus, when stalagmite growth is high, infiltration times short, and fluid mixing minimized, there exists the potential for PAHs in stalagmites to preserve evidence of the presence and intensity of fire through time. We have previously reported a high-resolution analysis of PAH distributions in two non-overlapping aragonite stalagmites from cave KNI-51, tropical Western Australia, that together span the majority of the last 900 years. The geologic conditions of this site make it well suited for the transmission of discrete pulses of fire-derived compounds from the land surface to the stalagmite. Soils are thin to absent above the stalagmite chamber and the cave is shallow. As a result, homogenization of infiltrated water (and thus PAHs) is expected to be small on interannual time scales. In addition, intense summer monsoon rains flush fire debris from the hillsides over the cave. These characteristics, coupled with the fast growth rates (1-2 mm/yr) and precise radiometric dates (±1-30 years 2 s.d. over the last millennium) of KNI-51 stalagmites suggest that they hold the potential for extremely high resolution paleofire reconstruction. Here we provide the first test of replication of PAH abundances, ratios, and trends in coeval stalagmites. Samples were analyzed at Ca’ Foscari University using methods of Argiriadis et al. (2019) and the results validated by comparing them with fire activity detected through satellite images. Stalagmites KNI-51-F and -G overlap in age from CE 1310-1630, allowing an examination of the consistency of the PAH signal along different infiltration pathways. References Argiriadis, E. et al. (2019) European Geosciences Union Annual Meeting, Vienna, Australia. Denniston, R.F. et al. (2018) American Geophysical Union Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C. Perrette, Y. et al. (2008) Chemical Geology, 251, 67-76. Perrette, Y. et al. (2013) Organic Geochemistry, 65, 37-45. 

The Indian summer monsoon (ISM), which today supplies ~75% of annual precipitation to South Asia, has been reconstructed across previous centuries using a variety of hydroclimate-sensitive proxies. In some of these cases, ISM variability far exceeds that observed in the century-and-a-half-long instrumental record. Understanding the origins of these events is best addressed by developing a wide-ranging, multi-proxy network of high-resolution ISM reconstructions. In Nepal, ISM variability has been examined through tree rings, glacial ice, and lake sediments, but no stalagmite isotopic records of ISM rainfall have yet been published. Here we present a sub-decadally-resolved, precisely-dated, composite aragonite stalagmite record of ISM variability from Siddha Baba cave, central Nepal, for the last 2.7 kyr. A rainwater sampling program near the cave site, and a published study from Kathmandu (Adhikari et al., 2020), 150 km to the southeast, reveal that rainfall amount explains little of the observed variance in d18O values. Local hydroclimate is thus reconstructed from stalagmite 13C values, which we interpret as reflecting prior aragonite precipitation driven by changes in effective precipitation above the cave. ISM variability is apparent across a number of time scales, including centennial periods of reduced or enhanced rainfall coincident with societally-relevant precipitation regimes identified at other sites across South Asia. These include the Neo-Assyrian drought in the eastern Mediterranean and Middle East (2.7-2.5 kyr BP; Kathayat et al., 2019), the Mauria Empire (2.1-1.9 kyr BP), and the Guge Kingdom (0.9-0.3 kyr BP) pluvials in India and Tibet (Kathayat et al., 2017). A secular shift toward drier conditions since 0.5 kyr BP in the Siddha Baba record tracks the 18O records from Dasuopu glacier, Nepal Himalaya, and Sahiya cave, North India. Numerous multidecadal oscillations are also evident, including markedly wetter conditions during the 18th century, in the late Little Ice Age, apparent in the Dasuopu and Sahiya records. References Adhikari et al. (2020) Tellus B: Chem. Phys. Meteor., 72, 1-17. Kathayat et al. (2017) Sc. Adv., 7, e1701296. Kathayat et al. (2019) Sci. Adv., 5, eaax6656. 

Anthropogenic climate change is expected to alter global hydrological regimes in the near future, resulting in significant changes to water availability. However, the magnitude of such changes will vary regionally. The Iberian Peninsula, and specifically Portugal, has been identified by climate model projections as an area where climate change will increase drought frequency and severity. Climate in the Iberian Peninsula is impacted by both internal and external climate modes, potentially producing different precipitation patterns within a small geographic region. Thus, the development of regional highly resolved paleoclimate records from Portugal is critical for improving the predictive capability of regional climate models under future warming scenarios and to determine the extent to which different teleconnection patterns are influencing hydroclimate. Here we present a near annually resolved stable carbon isotope (δ13C) and oxygen (δ18O) isotope time-series from three stalagmites from the Algarve region of southern Portugal from two caves within 2.3 km of each other. U/Th dating indicates that our composite record spans the last millennia continuously through 2019 CE. Two stalagmites (GIA-19-1 and C-18-1) stopped growing around 1550 CE, during a dry interval, and sample GIA-19-2 grew continuously since the 17th century. GIA-19-2, with sub-annual resolution, is compared to modern instrumental records to evaluate the influence of specific environmental controls, including temperature and precipitation amounts. Isotope data from all three stalagmites exhibit substantial multidecadal variability indicating relatively wet and dry intervals. Based on our initial results, it is likely that both temperature and precipitation amount effects are the dominant controls on isotopic variability in these stalagmites. Comparison of the GIA-19-2 oxygen isotope time-series with the instrumental record and reconstructed index of the East Atlantic (EA) pattern (1650 CE to present) shows strong coherence with a reconstructed EA index (1650-2018 CE) and an instrumental EA index (1950 to present). Hence, variability in Southern Portuguese hydroclimate associated with the EA mode should also be considered by policy makers planners as they prepare for future warming and associated water stresses.