Hostname: page-component-cb9f654ff-9knnw Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-08-27T03:30:57.907Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Isotopic Approach to Soil Carbonate Dynamics and Implications for Paleoclimatic Interpretations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Elise G. Pendall ,
Jennifer W. Harden ,
Sue E. Trumbore  and
Oliver A. Chadwick
Elise G. Pendall*
Affiliation:
U.S. Geological Survey, 345 Middlefield Road, MS 975, Menlo Park, California 94025
Jennifer W. Harden
Affiliation:
U.S. Geological Survey, 345 Middlefield Road, MS 975, Menlo Park, California 94025
Sue E. Trumbore
Affiliation:
Department of Geosciences, University of California, Irvine, California 92717-3100
Oliver A. Chadwick
Affiliation:
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, MS 183-501, Pasadena, California 91109
*
1 To whom correspondence should be addressed at the Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The radiocarbon content and stable isotope composition of soil carbonate are best described by a dynamic system in which isotopic reequilibration occurs as a result of recurrent dissolution and reprecipitation. Depth of water penetration into the soil profile, as well as soil age, determines the degree of carbonate isotope reequilibration. We measured δ13C, δ18O and radiocarbon content of gravel rinds and fine (<2 mm) carbonate in soils of 3 .different ages (1000, 3800, and 6300 14 C yr B.P.) to assess the degree to which they record and preserve a climatic signal. In soils developing in deposits independently dated at 3800 and 6300 radiocarbon yr B.P., carbonate radiocarbon content above 40 cm depth suggests continual dissolution and reprecipitation, presumably due to frequent wetting events. Between 40 and 90 cm depth, fine carbonate is dissolved and precipitated as rinds that are not redissolved subsequently. Below 90 cm depth in these soils, radiocarbon content indicates that inherited, fine carbonate undergoes little dissolution and reprecipitation. In the 3800- and 6300-yr-old soils, δ13C in rind and fine carbonate follows a decreasing trend with depth, apparently in equilibrium with modern soil gas, as predicted by a diffusive model for soil CO2. δ18O also decreases with depth due to greater evaporative enrichment above 50 cm depth. In contrast, carbonate isotopes in a 1000-yr-old deposit do not reflect modern conditions even in surficial horizons; this soil has not undergone significant pedogenesis. There appears to be a lag of at least 1000 but less than 3800 yr before carbonate inherited with parent material is modified by ambient climatic conditions. Although small amounts of carbonate are inherited with the parent material, the rate of pedogenic carbonate accumulation indicates that Ca is derived primarily from eolian and rainfall sources. A model describing carbonate input and radiocarbon decay suggests that fine carbonate below 90 cm is mostly detrital (inherited) and that carbonate rinds have been forming pedogenically at a constant rate since alluvial fans were deposited.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 42 , Issue 1 , July 1994 , pp. 60 - 71
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Amundson, R. G. Chadwick, O. A. Sowers, J. M., and Doner, H. E. (1989). The stable isotope chemistry of pedogenic carbonates at Kyle Canyon, Nevada. Soil Science Society of America Journal S3, 201–210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andraski, B. J. (1990). Rubber-balloon and drive-core sampling for determining bulk density of an alluvial desert soil. Soil Science Society of America Abstracts 1990.Google Scholar
Arkley, R. J. (1963). Calculation of carbonate and water movement in soil from climatic data. Soil Science 96, 239–248.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blake, G. R., and Harte, K. H. (1986). Bulk density. In “Methods of Soil Analysis” (Klute, A., Ed.), Part 1. Am. Soc. of Agronomy, Madison, Wl.Google Scholar
Brandt, E. Aruscavage, P., and Papp, C. (1990). Determination of carbonate carbon in geologic materials by coulometric titration. In“Quality Assurance Manual for the Branch of Geochemistry” (Arbogast, B. F., Ed.), pp. 68–72. U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 90-668.Google Scholar
Callen, R. A. Wasson, R. J., and Gillespie, R. (1983). Reliability of radiocarbon dating of pedogenic carbonate in the Australian arid zone. Sedimentary Geology 35, 1–14.Google Scholar
Cerling, T. E. (1984). The stable isotopic composition of modem soil carbonate and its relationship to climate. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 71, 229–240.Google Scholar
Cerling, T. E. (1991). Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere: Evidence from Cenozoic and Mesozoic paleosols. American Journal of Science 291, 377–400.Google Scholar
Cerling, T. E. Bowman, J. R., and O’Neil, J. R. (1988). An isotopic study of a fluvial-lacustrine sequence: The Plio-Pleistocene Koobi Fora sequence, East Africa. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 63, 335–356.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cerling, T. E. Quade, J. Wang, Y. R., and Bowman, J. R. (1989). Carbon isotopes in soils and palaeosols as ecology and palaeoecology indicators. Nature 341, 138–139.Google Scholar
Chadwick, O. A., and Davis, J. O. (1990). Soil-forming intervals caused by eolian sediment pulses in the Lahontan basin, northwestern Nevada. Geology 18, 243–246.Google Scholar
Chadwick, O. A. Hendricks, D. M., and Nettleton, W. D. (1987). Silica in duric soils. I. A depositional model. Soil Science Society of America Journal 51, 975–981.Google Scholar
Childs, S. W., and Flint, A. L. (1990). Physical properties of forest soils containing rock fragments. In “Sustained Productivity of Forest Soils” (Gessel, S., Ed.) Proceedings of the North American Forest Soils Conference 7th, Edmonton, Alberta. University of British Columbia, Faculty of Forestry Publishers, Vancouver.Google Scholar
Craig, H. (1957). Isotopic standards for carbon and oxygen and correction factors for mass spectrometric analysis of carbon dioxide. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 12, 133–149.Google Scholar
Craig, H. (1961). Standard for reporting concentrations of deuterium and oxygen-18 in natural waters. Science 133, 1833.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Damon, P. E. Long, A., and Sigalove, J. J. (1963). Arizona radiocarbon dates, IV. Radiocarbon 5, 283–301.Google Scholar
Gile, L. H., and Grossman, R. B. (1979). “The Desert Project Soil Monograph.” U.S. Department of Agriculture Soil Conservation Service, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Gile, L. H. Peterson, F. F., and Grossman, R. B. (1966). Morphological and genetic sequences of carbonate accumulation in desert soils. Soil Science 101, 347–360.Google Scholar
Harden, J. W. Taylor, W. E. Hill, C. Mark, R. K. McFadden, L. D. Reheis, M. C. Sowers, J. M., and Wells, S. G. (1991). Rates of soil development from four soil chronosequences in the southern Great Basin. Quaternary Research 35, 353–399.Google Scholar
Jenny, H. (1941), “Factors of Soil Formation.” McGraw-Hill, New York.Google Scholar
Machette, M. N. (1985). Calcic soils of the southwestern United States. In “Soils and Quaternary Geomorphology of the Southwestern United States” (Weide, D. L., Ed.), pp. 1–22. Geological Society of America Special Paper 203.Google Scholar
Mack, G. H. Cole, D. R. Giordano, T. H. Schaal, W. C., and Barcelos, J. H. (1991), Paleoclimatic controls on stable oxygen and carbon isotopes in caliche of the Abo Formation (Permian), south-central New Mexico, U.S.A. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology 61, 458–472.Google Scholar
Marion, G. M. Schlesinger, W. H., and Fonteyn, P. J. (1985). Caldep: A regional model for soil CaC03 (Caliche) deposition in southwestern deserts. Soil Science 139, 468–479.Google Scholar
Mayer, L. McFadden, L. D., and Harden, J. W. (1988). The distribution of calcium carbonate in desert soils: A model. Geology 16, 303–306.Google Scholar
McFadden, L. D., and Tinsley, J. C. (1985). Rate and depth of pedogenic-carbonate accumulation in soils: Formulation and testing of a compartment model. In “Soils and Quaternary Geomorphology of the Southwestern United States” (Weide, D. L., Ed.), pp. 23–41. Geological Society of America Special Paper 203.Google Scholar
Pendall, E., and Amundson, R. (1990). The stable isotope chemistry of pedogenic carbonate in an alluvial soil from the Punjab, Pakistan. Soil Science 149, 199–211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pendall, E. Harden, J. W., and Trumbore, S. (1991). Pedogenic isotopic indicators of climate and carbon cycling in Fish Lake Valley, Nevada. In “Friends of the Pleistocene Guidebook for Fieldtrip to Fish Lake Valley, California-Nevada” (Reheis, M. C., Ed.) U.S. Geological Survey Open File Report 91-290.Google Scholar
Quade, J. Cerling, T. E., and Bowman, J. R. (1989a). Development of Asian monsoon revealed by marked ecological shift during the latest Miocene in northern Pakistan. Nature 342, 163–166.Google Scholar
Quade, J. Cerling, T. E., and Bowman, J. R. (1989b). Systematic variations in the carbon and oxygen isotopic composition of pedogenic carbonate along elevation transects in the southern Great Basin, United States. Geological Society of America Bulletin 101, 464–475.Google Scholar
Reheis, M. C. Harden, J. W. McFadden, L. D., and Shroba, R. R. (1989), Development rates of late Quaternary soils, Silver Lake Playa, California. Soil Science Society of America Journal 54, 1127–1140.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Salomons, W., and Mook, W. G. (1976). Isotope geochemistry of carbonate dissolution and reprecipitation in soils. Soil Science 122, 15–24.Google Scholar
Schlesinger, W. H. (1982). Carbon storage in the caliche of arid soils: A case study from Arizona. Soil Science 133, 247–255.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schlesinger, W. H. (1985). The formation of caliche in soils of the Mojave Desert, California. Geochimica el Cosmochimica Acta 49, 57–66.Google Scholar
Schlesinger, W. H. Marion, G. M., and Fonteyn, P. J. (1989). Stable isotope ratios and the dynamics of caliche in desert soils. In “Stable Isotopes in Ecological Research” (Rundel, P. W. Ehleringer, J. R., and Nagy, K. A., Eds.), pp. 309–317. Springer-Verlag, New York.Google Scholar
Slate, J. L. (1991). Quaternary stratigraphy, geomorphology, and geochronology of alluvial fans, Fish Lake Valley. Univ. of Colorado Ph.D. dissertation.Google Scholar
Sowers, J. M. Szabo, B. Jull, T. Ku, T. L. Reheis, M. C. Chadwick, O. A. Robinson, S. W., and Amundson, R. G. (1988). Age data for Kyle Canyon soils and deposits. In “This Extended Land, Geological Journeys in the Southern Basin and Range: Field Trip Guidebook, Geological Society of America Cordilleran Section” (Weide, D. L. and Faber, M. L., Ed.), pp. 141–142.Google Scholar
Spaulding, W. G. (1991). A Middle Holocene vegetation record from the Mojave Desert of North America and its paleoclimatic significance. Quaternary Research 35, 427–437.Google Scholar
Switzer, P. S. Harden, J. W., and Mark, R. K. (1988). A statistical method for estimating rates of soil development and ages of geologic deposits: A design for soil-chronosequence studies. Mathematical Geology 20, 49–61.Google Scholar
Vogel, J. S. Southon, J. R. Nelson, D. E., and Brown, T. A. (1984). Performance of catalytically condensed carbon for use in AMS. In“International Conference on Accelerator Mass Spectrometry, 3rd Proc. Nuclear Instruments and Methods v. B5” (Wolfli, W., Ed.), pp. 284–293.Google Scholar
Wang, Y. R. Amundson, R., and Trumbore, S. (1994). A model for soil C02 and its implications for using 14C to date pedogenic carbonate. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 58, 393–399.Google Scholar
Wang, Y. R., and Zheng, S.-H. (1989). Paleosol nodules as Pleistocene paleoclimatic indicators, Louchuan P. R. China. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 76, 39–44.Google Scholar
Williams, G. E., and Polach, H. A. (1971), Radiocarbon dating of aridzone calcareous paleosols. Geological Society of America Bulletin 82, 3069–3086.Google Scholar