Paleoaltimetry proxies based on bacterial branched tetraether membrane lipids in soils

Abstract

The MBT/CBT (Methylation Index of Branched Tetraethers/Cyclisation ratio of Branched Tetraether) proxy, a terrestrial paleothermometer based on bacterial branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (bGDGTs), was employed to indicate altimetry; however, the mechanistic control on this proxy is still ambiguous. Here, we investigated the bGDGTs’ distribution and associated environmental factors along an altitude transect of Mt. Shennongjia in China in order to determine the applicability of bGDGT-based proxies to altimetry reconstruction. The MBT index exhibits only a weak correlation with estimated mean annual air temperature (MAT_e, estimated according to the meteorological record and lapse rate) or altitude. Likewise, MBT shows weak or no relationship with temperature or altitude at four other mountains (Mts. Meghalaya, Jianfengling, Gongga, and Rungwe). It is notable that mean annual air temperature (MAT) or altitude estimated by the MBT/CBT proxy largely relies on CBT, rather than on MBT, which was generally acknowledged. The poor relationship between MBT and MAT_e for Mt. Shennongjia can be ascribed to the insensitive response of bGDGT-I to temperature. Our data from this mountain imply that care should be taken if the MBT/CBT proxy is employed as an indication of paleoaltimetry. We propose that the fractional abundance of bGDGTs may be a better paleoaltimeter than the MBT/CBT proxy, because specific bGDGT subsets that might show the most sensitive response to temperature can be preferentially selected using a statistical method and used to establish local calibration. This local calibration was applied to Mt. Shennongjia and apparently improves the accuracy of temperature and altimetry reconstruction. The differential response of bGDGTs to temperature among mountains suggests that local calibrations are needed to better constrain the altimetry.

Keywords

branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers / soil pH / paleoaltimetry / temperatures

References

[1] Anderson V J, Shanahan T M, Saylor J E, Horton B K, Mora A R (2014). Sources of local and regional variability in the MBT’/CBT paleotemperature proxy: insights from a modern elevation transect across the Eastern Cordillera of Colombia. Org Geochem, 69: 42–51

[2] Coffinet S, Huguet A, Williamson D, Fosse C, Derenne S (2014). Potential of GDGTs as a temperature proxy along an altitudinal transect at Mount Rungwe (Tanzania). Org Geochem, 68: 82–89

[3] Dirghangi S S, Pagani M, Hren M T, Tipple B J (2013). Distribution of glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers in soils from two environmental transects in the USA. Org Geochem, 59: 49–60

[4] Ernst N, Peterse F, Breitenbach S F M, Syiemlieh H J, Eglinton T I (2013). Biomarkers record environmental changes along an altitudinal transect in the wettest place on Earth. Org Geochem, 60: 93–99

[5] Ghosh P, Garzione C N, Eiler J M (2006). Rapid uplift of the Altiplano revealed through ¹³C-¹⁸O bonds in paleosol carbonates. Science, 311(5760): 511–515

[6] Hren M T, Pagani M, Erwin D M, Brandon M (2010). Biomarker reconstruction of the early Eocene paleotopography and paleoclimate of the northern Sierra Nevada. Geology, 38(1): 7–10

[7] Huguet C, Hopmans E C, Febo-Ayala W, Thompson D H, Sinninghe Damsté J S, Schouten S (2006). An improved method to determine the absolute abundance of glycerol dibiphytanyl glycerol tetraether lipids. Org Geochem, 37(9): 1036–1041

[8] Jia G, Wei K, Chen F, Peng P A (2008). Soil n-alkane δD vs. altitude gradients along Mount Gongga, China. Geochim Cosmochim Acta, 72(21): 5165–5174

[9] Liu W, Wang H, Zhang C L, Liu Z, He Y (2013). Distribution of glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraether lipids along an altitudinal transect on Mt. Xiangpi, NE Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, China. Org Geochem, 57: 76–83

[10] Loomis S E, Russell J M, Sinninghe Damsté J S (2011). Distributions of branched GDGTs in soils and lake sediments from western Uganda: implications for a lacustrine paleothermometer. Org Geochem, 42(7): 739–751

[11] Luo P, Peng P A, Gleixner G, Zheng Z, Pang Z, Ding Z (2011). Empirical relationship between leaf wax n-alkane δD and altitude in the Wuyi, Shennongjia and Tianshan Mountains, China: implications for paleoaltimetry. Earth Planet Sci Lett, 301(1–2): 285–296

[12] Mulch A, Graham S A, Chamberlain C P (2006). Hydrogen isotopes in Eocene river gravels and paleoelevation of the Sierra Nevada. Science, 313(5783): 87–89

[13] Mulch A, Teyssier C, Cosca M A, Vanderhaeghe O, Vennemann T W (2004). Reconstructing paleoelevation in eroded orogens. Geology, 32(6): 525–528

[14] Peterse F, van der Meer J, Schouten S, Weijers J W H, Fierer N, Jackson R B, Kim J H, Sinninghe Damsté J S (2012). Revised calibration of the MBT−CBT paleotemperature proxy based on branched tetraether membrane lipids in surface soils. Geochim Cosmochim Acta, 96: 215–229

[15] Peterse F, van der Meer M T J, Schouten S, Jia G, Ossebaar J, Blokker J, Sinninghe Damsté J S (2009). Assessment of soil n-alkane δD and branched tetraether membrane lipid distributions as tools for paleoelevation reconstruction. Biogeosciences, 6(12): 2799–2807

[16] Polissar P J, Freeman K H, Rowley D B, McInerney F A, Currie B S (2009). Paleoaltimetry of the Tibetan Plateau from D/H ratios of lipid biomarkers. Earth Planet Sci Lett, 287(1–2): 64–76

[17] Rowley D B, Garzione C N (2007). Stable isotope-based paleoaltimetry. Annu Rev Earth Planet Sci, 35(1): 463–508

[18] Ruddiman W F, Kutzbach J E (1989). Forcing of late Cenozoic northern hemisphere climate by plateau uplift in southern Asia and the American west. J Geophys Res Atmos, 94(D15): 18409–18427

[19] Schouten S, Hopmans E C, Schefuß E, Sinninghe Damsté J S (2002). Distributional variations in marine crenarchaeotal membrane lipids: a new tool for reconstructing ancient sea water temperatures? Earth Planet Sci Lett, 204(1–2): 265–274

[20] Sinninghe Damsté J S, Hopmans E, Pancost R D, Schouten S, Geenevasen J A J (2000). Newly discovered non-isoprenoid glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraether lipids in sediments. Chem Commun (Camb), 2000(17): 1683–1684

[21] Sinninghe Damsté J S, Ossebaar J, Schouten S, Verschuren D (2008). Altitudinal shifts in the branched tetraether lipid distribution in soil from Mt. Kilimanjaro (Tanzania): implications for the MBT/CBT continental palaeothermometer. Org Geochem, 39(8): 1072–1076

[22] Sun Q, Chu G, Liu M, Xie M, Li S, Ling Y, Wang X, Shi L, Jia G, Lu H Y (2011). Distributions and temperature dependence of branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers in recent lacustrine sediments from China and Nepal. J Geophys Res, 116(G1): G01008

[23] ter Braak C J F (1988). Canoco-a FORTRAN program for canonical community ordination by (partial) (detrended) (canonical) correspondence analysis, principal components analysis and redundancy analysis (version 2.1). Technical Rep. LWA-88-02, GLW, Wageningen, 95

[24] ter Braak C J F, Prentice I C (1988). A theory of gradient analysis. Adv Ecol Res, 18: 271–317

[25] ter Braak C J F, Smilauer P (2002). CANOCO reference manual and Canodraw for Windows Users Guide: software for canonical community ordination (version 4.5). Microcomputer Power, Ithaca, NY, USA. 500

[26] Tierney J E, Russell J M, Eggermont H, Hopmans E C, Verschuren D, Sinninghe Damsté J S (2010). Environmental controls on branched tetraether lipid distributions in tropical East African lake sediments. Geochim Cosmochim Acta, 74(17): 4902–4918

[27] Weijers J W H, Schouten S, Spaargaren O C, Sinninghe Damsté J S (2006). Occurrence and distribution of tetraether membrane lipids in soils: implications for the use of the TEX₈₆ proxy and the BIT index. Org Geochem, 37(12): 1680–1693

[28] Weijers J W H, Schouten S, van den Donker J C, Hopmans E C, Sinninghe Damsté J S (2007). Environmental controls on bacterial tetraether membrane lipid distribution in soils. Geochim Cosmochim Acta, 71(3): 703–713

[29] Weijers J W H, Steinmann P, Hopmans E C, Schouten S, Sinninghe Damsté J S (2011). Bacterial tetraether membrane lipids in peat and coal: testing the MBT/CBT temperature proxy for climate reconstruction. Org Geochem, 42(5): 477–486

[30] Weijers J W H, Wiesenberg G L B, Bol R, Hopmans E C, Pancost R D (2010). Carbon isotopic composition of branched tetraether membrane lipids in soils suggest a rapid turnover and a heterotrophic life style of their source organism(s). Biogeosciences, 7(9): 2959–2973

[31] Yang H, Ding W, He G, Xie S (2010). Archaeal and bacterial tetraether membrane lipids in soils of varied altitudes in Mt. Jianfengling in South China. J Earth Sci, 21(S1): 277–280

[32] Yang H, Ding W, Wang J, Jin C, He G, Qin Y, Xie S (2012). Soil pH impact on microbial tetraether lipids and terrestrial input index (BIT) in China. Science China Earth Sciences, 55(2): 236–245

[33] Yang H, Ding W, Zhang C L, Wu X, Ma X, He G, Huang J, Xie S (2011). Occurrence of tetraether lipids in stalagmites: implications for sources and GDGT-based proxies. Org Geochem, 42(1): 108–115

[34] Yang H, Pancost R D, Dang X, Zhou X, Evershed R P, Xiao G, Tang C, Gao L, Guo Z, Xie S (2014). Correlations between microbial tetraether lipids and environmental variables in Chinese soils: optimizing the paleo-reconstructions in semi-arid and arid regions. Geochim Cosmochim Acta, 126: 49–69

[35] Zhu C, Chen X, Zhang G, Ma C, Zhu Q, Li Z, Xu W (2008). Spore-pollen-climate factor transfer function and paleoenvironment reconstruction in Dajiuhu, Shennongjia, Central China. Chin Sci Bull, 53(S1): 42–49

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Yangmin Qin, Xianyu Huang and Canfa Wang for soil sampling and Weihua Ding for LC-MS maintenance. This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (No. 2011CB808800), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 41330103 and 41103079) and 111 Project (Grant No. B08030).

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg