Precipitation over South America during the Last Glacial Maximum: An analysis of the “amount effect” with a water isotope-enabled general circulation model

Details Precipitation over South America during the Last Glacial Maximum: An analysis of the “amount effect” with a water isotope-enabled general circulation model Precipitation over South America during the Last Glacial Maximum: An analysis of the “amount effect” with a water isotope-enabled general circulation model

Oct 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009georl..3619701l&link_type=abstract

Geophysical Research Letters, Volume 36, Issue 19, CiteID L19701

Physics

6

Global Change: Biogeochemical Cycles, Processes, And Modeling (0412, 0414, 0793, 4805, 4912), Global Change: Global Climate Models (3337, 4928), Global Change: Climate Variability (1635, 3305, 3309, 4215, 4513), Global Change: Water Cycles (1836)

Scientific paper

Low latitude paleoclimate records from speleothem δ 18O measurements are often considered to reflect variations in precipitation amounts. Here we test this interpretation with a water isotope enabled atmospheric general circulation model, comparing modern and Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) controls on the δ 18Op in Brazil. We argue that the δ 18Op is determined by the contributions from local evaporation (high δ 18O) versus water vapor convergence to the region (low δ 18O). Our analysis indicates that the amount effect, commonly used to infer precipitation amount from δ 18Op in low latitude regions, works only where the isotopic composition of incoming vapor stays relatively constant such as in coastal regions of the subtropics. If the isotopic composition of incoming vapor has changed as a result of the variations in the upstream rainout, δ 18Op cannot be used to estimate local precipitation. Our analysis supports the increase of precipitation over northeastern Brazil region during the LGM.

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