New paper on hydrogen isotopes from sedimentary plant waxes published in JGR Biogeosciences
Nemiah Ladd led this study with contributions from Dan Nelson and other co-authors, which examined the relationships between the hydrogen isotopic compositions of sedimentary plant waxes with those of rainfall. The study focused on placing sites from the tropical Pacific in the context of a comprehensive global data compilation, and also included pollen analyses from the tropical Pacific sites. The data show that while the relationships between rainfall and plant wax hydrogen isotope values are strong in the global context, within the tropical Pacific the relationships are weaker and are not related to local plant distributions based on pollen data. The study shows that this pattern may partially derive from uncertainties in the hydrogen isotopic composition of rainfall, which is poorly constrained on tropical Pacific islands, but also that some variability among sites may also be related to other factors.