Multi-proxy constraints on the climatic significance of trace element records from a New Zealand speleothem

Abstract

Trace element concentrations and uranium isotope ratios are reported for a speleothem from the South Island of New Zealand. TIMS uranium-series dating of the speleothem indicates it to have grown from 31 000 years ago to the present, providing a continuous record of the last deglaciation. Trace element abundances measured in this speleothem using ICP-MS are found to exhibit strong temporal relationships with δ13C and other measured variables, and with the environmental changes inferred from them. Strontium and barium concentrations are positively correlated with inferred changes in the productivity and extent of vegetation cover above the cave. Magnesium concentration appears to have respond..