Beyond ocean temperature: Extracting new dimensions of paleoclimatic information from archaeal lipids and their isotopic compositions

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A good understanding of past climate requires accurate reconstruction of factors such as ocean temperature and biological productivity. One such paleotemperature method is the "TEX86 proxy", which is based on the preserved organic molecules of Archaea, an important class of ocean microbes. TEX86 records have been particularly valuable for studying climate of the last 100 million years, especially during ancient warm episodes where other temperature proxies are unavailable. Although in the modern ocean there generally is good agreement between temperatures predicted from TEX86 and the actual observed sea surface temperatures (SSTs), TEX86 can yield significant regional or seasonal errors. Disagreement also has been observed during past greenhouse climates associated with low oxygen levels in the oceans; in particular, TEX86 sometimes predicts colder temperatures during such intervals, even though the ocean actually is warming. To improve understanding of TEX86 temperature records, this project will examine environmental and ecological controls on TEX86, thereby strengthening its value for paleoceanography. The results may be relevant not only to climate studies, but also to understanding the importance of Archaea in tracing nutrient distributions and the biogeochemical history of the ocean. The central hypothesis of this research is that temperature errors in TEX86 are due to regional differences in growth rate for Archaea, which is a function of ammonia oxidation and therefore of marine export production. This implies that TEX86 is a combined temperature and marine biogeochemistry signal. The major analytical goal is to incorporate stable carbon and hydrogen isotopic information into TEX86 temperature proxy records, by measuring isotopic ratios for the individual TEX86 compounds (called iGDGTs). Isotopic measurements in tandem with temperature reconstruction will collectively allow productivity signals to be decoupled from temperature signals. Specifically, the work will examine three distinct records that are associated with major shifts in biogeochemical structuring of the ocean over different time scales. Record 1: the Pliocene-Pleistocene sapropel formation in the Mediterranean Sea, for which no significant fluctuations in mean ocean temperature but major temporal changes in the nutrient regime have been inferred. Record 2: the Pleistocene and Holocene Eastern Equatorial Pacific, a tropical environment lacking seasonality but showing secular changes in both temperature and productivity. Record 3: the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) and its associated carbon isotope excursion. These three records collectively allow for separation of the major variables temperature and productivity. To achieve the goals, the research requires several novel methods: Spooling Wire Microcombustion-IRMS (SWiM-IRMS) for isotopic analysis of carbon, all-in-one HPLC-MS approaches to measuring TEX86 and UK37 simultaneously, and high-temperature GC-IRMS for isotopic analysis of hydrogen; advanced isotopic technologies therefore also play a role in this project. The project supports career development for a postdoctoral researcher.