Natural Bridge Caverns, Texas 6700 Year Speleothem Stable Isotope Data Wong, C.I.; Banner, J.L.; Musgrove, M. Wong, C.I. Banner, J.L. Musgrove, M. earth science/paleoclimate/speleothems (depth,null,null,millimeter,null,speleothems,null,null,N,null) earth science/paleoclimate/speleothems (age,null,null,calendar year before present,null,speleothems,null,null,N,null) earth science/paleoclimate/speleothems (delta 18O,calcium carbonate,null,per mil VPDB,null,speleothems,raw,isotope ratio mass spectrometry,N,null) earth science/paleoclimate/speleothems (delta 13C,calcium carbonate,null,per mil VPDB,null,speleothems,raw,isotope ratio mass spectrometry,N,null) earth science/paleoclimate/speleothems earth science/paleoclimate/speleothems (Natural Bridge Caverns>LATITUDE 29.69>LONGITUDE -98.34) Delineating the climate processes governing precipitation variability in drought-prone Texas is critical for predicting and mitigating climate change effects, and requires the reconstruction of past climate beyond the instrumental record. We synthesize existing paleoclimate proxy data and climate simulations to provide an overview of climate variability in Texas during the Holocene. Conditions became progressively warmer and drier transitioning from the early to mid Holocene, culminating between 7 and 3 ka (thousand years ago), and were more variable during the late Holocene. The timing and relative magnitude of Holocene climate variability, however, is poorly constrained owing to considerable variability among the different records. To help address this, we present a new speleothem (NBJ) reconstruction from a central Texas cave that comprises the highest resolution proxy record to date, spanning the mid to late Holocene. NBJ trace-element concentrations indicate variable moisture conditions with no clear temporal trend. There is a decoupling between NBJ growth rate, trace-element concentrations, and d18O values, which indicate that (i) the often direct relation between speleothem growth rate and moisture availability is likely complicated by changes in the overlying ecosystem that affect subsurface CO2 production, and (ii) speleothem d18O variations likely reflect changes in moisture source (i.e., proportion of Pacific-vs. Gulf of Mexico-derived moisture) that appear not to be linked to moisture amount. STUDY NOTES: Speleothem stable isotope (d18O and d13C) from Natural Bridge Caverns, Bexar County, central Texas for the past 6,700 years. NCDC-Paleoclimatology https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/data-access/paleoclimatology-data - Bauer Bruce Investigator : Wong, C.I. Investigator : Banner, J.L. Investigator : Musgrove, M. 2015-11-06 ONLINE Files online, ASCII https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/study/19460 https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/speleothem/northamerica/usa/texas/naturalbridge2015.txt https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/speleothem/northamerica/usa/texas/naturalbridge2015.txt English https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/study/19460 https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/speleothem/northamerica/usa/texas/naturalbridge2015.txt Corinne I. Wong, Jay L. Banner, MaryLynn Musgrove2015Holocene climate variability in Texas, USA: An integration of existing paleoclimate data and modeling with a new, high-resolution speleothem recordQuaternary Science Reviews127155-17310.1016/j.quascirev.2015.06.023 START YEAR: 6736 cal yr BP * END YEAR: 19 cal yr BP -98.34 29.69 -98.34 29.69