Abstract
Abstract One difficulty with reconstructing palaeoclimate from stable isotopic analyses of continental proxies is to determine whether changes occurred in temperature and/or precipitation. The resolution with which δ13C and δ15N values of soil organic matter (SOM) can be used to infer climate characteristics were examined from soils along two elevation transects in Ethiopia. Two transect characteristics permitted evaluation of temperature and precipitation effects separately and in tandem on δ values. First, transects differed from one another in precipitation but not in temperature. In addition, precipitation did not co-vary with elevation or temperature in the wetter transect. Vapour pressure deficits (physiologically meaningful measures of aridity affected by both temperature and precipitation) thus decreased more with elevation gain in the drier than in the wetter transect. In both transects, δ13C values of surface (
Published Version
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