Modern Spatial Rainfall Rate is well Correlated with Coretop δ2Hdinosterol in the South Pacific Convergence Zone: a Tool for Quantitative Reconstructions

The South Pacific Convergence Zone (SPCZ) is the Southern Hemisphere’s most prominent precipitation feature extending southeastward 3000 km from Papua New Guinea to French Polynesia. Determining how the SPCZ responded to climate variations before the instrumental record requires the use of indirect indicators of rainfall. The link between the hydrogen isotopic composition of water fluxes though the hydrologic cycle, lake water, and molecular fossil ²H/¹H ratios make hydrogen isotopes a promising tool for improving our understanding of this important climate feature. An analysis of coretop sediment from freshwater lakes in the SPCZ region indicates that there is a strong spatial relationship between δ²H_dinosterol and mean annual precipitation rate. The objectives of this research are to use ²H/¹H ratios of the biomarker dinosterol to develop an empirical relationship between δ²H_dinosterol and modern environmental rainfall rates so that we may quantitatively reconstruct several aspects of the SPCZ’s hydrological system during the late Holocene. The analysis includes lake sediment coretops from the Solomon Islands, Wallis Island, Vanuatu, Tahiti, Samoa, New Caledonia, and the Cook Islands. These islands span range of average modern precipitation rates from 3 to 7 mm/day and the coretop sediment δ²H_dinosterol values range from -240‰ to -320‰. Applying this regional coretop calibration to dated sediment cores reveals that the mean annual position and/or intensity of the SPCZ has not been static during the past 2000 years.