Water balance over the last 20,000 yrs in North-Eastern Brazil. Insights from the δD variations of fatty acids from a lacustrine series (Lagoa do Caçó).

Jérémy Jacob (1)

1 ISTO - Institut des Sciences de la Terre d'Orléans

In spring 2003, I received the EAOG Travel Scholarship so as to complete bulk and molecular organic analyses performed during my PhD, in the Earth Science Institute of Orléans (ISTO, France), on a sedimentary core drilled in Lagoa do Caçó (Maranhaõ State, NE Brazil). With the agreement of Pr. Yongsong Huang, I spent one month and a half (from April to May) at Brown University (Providence, RI, USA). The EAOG award covered my return air fare and living expenses while in Providence. During this period, we extracted, separated, quantified and measured the isotopic composition (δ13C and δD) of sedimentary lipids in 31 samples belonging to this lacustrine series. We mainly focused on fatty acids (FA) due to their easy isolation from the total extract. I present herein the scientific context in which this Travel Scholarship was undergone and some key results that concern the hydrogen isotopic composition of higher plants derived FA and their use as proxy of water balance in a tropical setting.

Domains: Climatology

Jérémy Jacob. Water balance over the last 20,000 yrs in North-Eastern Brazil. Insights from the δD variations of fatty acids from a lacustrine series (Lagoa do Caçó).. EAOG Newsletter, 2004, 18, pp.6-10. ⟨hal-00022687⟩