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Comparative clumped isotope temperature relationships in freshwater carbonates
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  • Alexandrea Jay Arnold,
  • John J Mering,
  • Lauren Santi,
  • Cristian Román-Palacios,
  • Huashu Li,
  • Victoria Petryshyn,
  • Bryce Akio Mitsunaga,
  • Ben Elliott,
  • John Wilson,
  • Jamie Kaaren Lucarelli,
  • Ronny Boch,
  • Daniel Enrique Ibarra,
  • Lin Li,
  • Majie Fan,
  • Darrell Kaufmann,
  • Andrew S Cohen,
  • Robert B Dunbar,
  • James M. Russell,
  • Stefan Lalonde,
  • Priyadarsi Roy,
  • Martin Dietzel,
  • Xingqi Liu,
  • Fengming Chang,
  • Rob Eagle,
  • Aradhna Tripati
Alexandrea Jay Arnold
University of California, Los Angeles

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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John J Mering
University of Waikato
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Lauren Santi
University of California, Los Angeles
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Cristian Román-Palacios
University of California, Los Angeles
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Huashu Li
Capital Normal University
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Victoria Petryshyn
University of Southern California
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Bryce Akio Mitsunaga
Brown University
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Ben Elliott
University of California, Los Angeles
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John Wilson
University of California, Los Angeles
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Jamie Kaaren Lucarelli
University of California Los Angeles
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Ronny Boch
Graz University of Technology
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Daniel Enrique Ibarra
Brown University
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Lin Li
University of Arizona
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Majie Fan
University of Texas at Arlington
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Darrell Kaufmann
North Arizona University
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Andrew S Cohen
University of Arizona
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Robert B Dunbar
Stanford University
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James M. Russell
Brown University
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Stefan Lalonde
European Institute for Marine Studies
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Priyadarsi Roy
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
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Martin Dietzel
Graz University of Technology
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Xingqi Liu
College of Resource, Environment and Tourism, Capital Normal University
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Fengming Chang
Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
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Rob Eagle
University of California, Los Angeles
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Aradhna Tripati
University of California,
Los Angeles
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Abstract

Lacustrine, riverine, and spring carbonates are archives of terrestrial climate change and are extensively used to study paleoenvironments. Clumped isotope thermometry has been applied to freshwater carbonates to reconstruct temperatures, however, limited work has been done to evaluate comparative relationships between clumped isotopes and temperature in different types of modern freshwater carbonates. Therefore, in this study, we assemble an extensive calibration dataset with 135 samples of modern lacustrine, fluvial, and spring carbonates from 96 sites and constrain the relationship between independent observations of water temperature and the clumped isotopic composition of carbonates (denoted by Δ47). We restandardize and synthesize published data and report 159 new measurements of 25 samples. We derive a composite freshwater calibration and also evaluate differences in the Δ47-temperature dependence for different types of materials to examine whether material-specific calibrations may be justified. When material type is considered, there is a convergence of slopes between biological carbonates (freshwater gastropods and bivalves), micrite, biologically-mediated carbonates (microbialites and tufas), travertines, and other recently published syntheses, but statistically significant differences in intercepts between some materials, possibly due to seasonal biases, kinetic isotope effects, and/or varying degrees of biological influence. Δ47-based reconstructions of water δ18O generally yield values within 2‰ of measured water δ18O when using a material-specific calibration. We explore the implications of applying these new calibrations in reconstructing temperature in three case studies.