Search for: All records

This dataset contains the raw data associated with the manuscript entitled: Aquatic Moss δ18O as a Proxy for Seasonally Resolved Lake Water δ18O, Northwest Greenland (Puleo et al., 2024). Reconstructing past climate seasonality is fundamental to understanding the nature of past climate changes. This is especially true in the Arctic, where climate is intensely seasonal and proxies that can distinguish climate conditions of multiple seasons in a single year are relatively rare. We propose that submerged aquatic mosses, which are abundant subfossils in some Arctic lake sediments and have distinctive seasonal growth morphologies, can be used to estimate past lake water oxygen isotope composition (δ18Olw) across multiple seasons. Aquatic mosses are abundant, well preserved, and grow continuously in Arctic lakes whenever light is available, with some species displaying unique seasonal morphologies influenced by water temperature. Although Greenland paleorecords support that aquatic moss oxygen isotope values (δ18Oom) reflect the δ18O values of lake water, no modern calibration between δ18Oom and δ18Olw exists in Greenland, as aquatic moss samples are composed largely, but not entirely, of cellulose. We present a modern δ18Oom vs. δ18Olw calibration using multiple moss species or morphotypes from eight lakes and ponds near Pituffik (Thule), northwest Greenland. We find strong linear relationships between the δ18Oom and δ18Olw values of multiple species or morphotypes across the range of relatively low δ18Olw values at Pituffik, and our results indicate isotopic fractionations are similar to those found previously at lower latitudes. To assess the potential of mosses as archives of seasonal δ18Olw values, we analyzed δ18Oom in season-specific segments of moss strands, with seasons identified based upon growth morphology. Moss inferred lake water δ18O values (δ18Olwom) are higher in autumn than spring or summer, likely due to increasing contributions of isotopically heavier precipitation and the cumulative effects of lake water evaporation throughout the ice-free season. For moss subsampled throughout summer, δ18Olwom values generally increased through the season in parallel with observed δ18Olw values. Potential temperature dependent fractionation effects during biosynthesis, however, remain unconstrained and should be further addressed with future research. Overall, these findings suggest that aquatic mosses from lake sediments could be used to directly resolve climate seasonality of the past. Puleo, P.J.K., Akers, P.D., Kopec, B.G., Welker, J.M., Bailey, H., Osburn, M.R., Riis, T., Axford, Y., 2024. Aquatic moss δ18O as a proxy for seasonally resolved lake water δ18O, northwest Greenland. Quaternary Science Reviews 334, 1-11. 

Abstract How subsurface microbial life changed at the bottom of the kilometers‐deep (hypo) Critical Zone in response to evolving surface conditions over geologic time is an open question. This study investigates the burial and exhumation, biodegradation, and fluid circulation history of hydrocarbon reservoirs across the Colorado Plateau as a window into the hypo‐Critical Zone. Hydrocarbon reservoirs, in the Paradox and Uinta basins, were deeply buried starting ca. 100 to 60 Ma, reaching temperatures >80–140°C, likely sterilizing microbial communities present since the deposition of sediments. High salinities associated with evaporites may have further limited microbial activity. Upward migration of hydrocarbons from shale source rocks into shallower reservoirs during maximum burial set the stage for microbial re‐introduction by creating organic‐rich “hot spots.” Denudation related to the incision of the Colorado River over the past few million years brought reservoirs closer to the surface under cooler temperatures, enhanced deep meteoric water circulation and flushing of saline fluids, and likely re‐inoculated more permeable sediments up to several km depth. Modern‐ to paleo‐hydrocarbon reservoirs show molecular and isotopic evidence of anaerobic oxidation of hydrocarbons coupled to bacterial sulfate reduction in areas with relatively high SO₄‐fluxes. Anaerobic oil biodegradation rates are high enough to explain the removal of at least some portion of postulated “supergiant oil fields” across the Colorado Plateau by microbial activity over the past several million years. Results from this study help constrain the lower limits of the hypo‐Critical Zone and how it evolved over geologic time, in response to changing geologic, hydrologic, and biologic forcings.