Southern Patagonian climate during the last 55,000 years: insights from lipid biomarkers and their isotopes (PASADO Lipids)

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This project’s overarching aim is to establish quantitative reconstructions of changes in temperature, precipitation and hydrologic balance in southern Patagonia over the last 55,000 years. The PASADO core drilled within the framework of the ICDP in Laguna Potrok Aike provides the material which enables to investigate new organic-geochemical parameters based on microbial membrane lipids and compound-specific isotope compositions. To lay a sound scientific basis for interpretation, an extensive survey of lake organic matter sources will be conducted and regional climatic calibrations will be developed. Application to the sedimentary archive will provide new insights into past temperature, precipitation and evaporation changes which will be compared to existing data from paleo-biological, sedimentological and geochemical studies. Extending these analyses to 55,000 years ago will allow a detailed evaluation of the complex interference of tropical with high-latitude climate processes during the Holocene and the Last Glacial. Besides, these studies will further our understanding of the influences of various environmental factors on the investigated and novel proxy parameters.