Hydrogen isotope ratios of recent lacustrine sedimentary n-alkanes record modern climate variability

Abstract

Hydrogen isotope ratios were measured on n-alkanes (n-C 12 to n-C 31) extracted from recent lake surface sediments along a N-S European transect to test if modern climate variability is recorded in these biomarkers. δD values of the n-alkanes are compared to δD values of meteoric water from the IAEA-GNIP database spanning a range from −119‰ in northern Sweden to −41‰ in southern Italy, to lake water δD values, and to mean annual temperatures, varying between −2.0°C in the north and 13.7°C in the south. δD values of the short-chained n-alkanes n-C 12 to n-C 20, excluding algal derived n-C 17 and n-C 19, are higher in the north and lower in the south. The isotopic fractionation ε for hydrogen between meteoric water and the short-chained n-alkanes is increasing from N to S by more than 100‰ and is significantly correlated to mean annual temperature for n-C 16 and n-C 18. This suggests that these n-alkanes may originate from a different source in the northern lakes, possibly due to petroleum contamination, or are synthesized using a different biochemical pathway. The n-C 17 and n-C 19 alkanes of algal origin, the n-C 21 and n-C 23 alkanes originating from water plants, and the long-chain n-alkanes n-C 25, n-C 27, n-C 29, and n-C 31 of terrestrial origin, clearly correlate with δD values of meteoric water, lake water, and mean annual temperature, indicating that they excellently record the δD value of meteoric water. The mean hydrogen isotope fractionation ε C17/w of −157‰ (SD = 13) between n-C 17 and meteoric water is fairly constant over the wide range of different climates and lake environments, suggesting only minor influence of environmental factors on this biochemical fractionation. This suggests that δD values of n-C 17 are suitable to reconstruct the isotopic composition of source water. The mean fractionation between the long-chain n-alkanes and water is −128‰ (SD = 12). The mean difference of 31‰ between both ε values is likely due to evaporative enrichment of deuterium in the leaf water. If this is the only influence on the enrichment, the difference between the δD values of terrestrial and aquatic compounds might be suitable to reconstruct terrestrial evapotranspiration of the lake environment.