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Quantitative assessment of the oxygen isotope composition of fish otoliths from Lake Mungo, Australia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2021

Kelsie Long Open the ORCID record for Kelsie Long [Opens in a new window] ,
David Heslop  and
Eelco J. Rohling
Kelsie Long*
Affiliation:
Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University, 142 Mills Road, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia School of Culture, History and Language, Australian National University, H.C. Coombs building, 9 Fellows Road, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia
David Heslop
Affiliation:
Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University, 142 Mills Road, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia
Eelco J. Rohling
Affiliation:
Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University, 142 Mills Road, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia School of Ocean and Earth Science, University of Southampton, National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, SO15 3ZH, UK
*
*Corresponding author e-mail address: Kelsie.long@anu.edu.au.
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Abstract

The Willandra Lakes region is a series of once interconnected and now-dry lake basins in the arid zone of southeastern Australia. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site of cultural, archaeological, and geological significance, preserving records of Aboriginal occupation and environmental change stretching back to at least 50 ka. Linking the archaeology with the commensurate palaeoenvironmental information is complicated by the millennial time spans represented by the past hydrological record preserved in the sediment vs. the subdecadal evidence of each archaeological site. Oxygen isotope records across annual growth rings of fish otoliths (ear stones) can elucidate flooding and drying regimes on subannual scales. Otoliths from hearth sites (fireplaces) link lake hydrology with people eating fish on the lakeshore. Oxygen isotopic trends in hearth otoliths from the last glacial maximum (LGM) were previously interpreted in terms of high evaporation under dry conditions. However, this ignored hydrology-driven changes in water δ18O. Here, a mass balance model is constructed to test the effect lake desiccation has on water δ18O and how this compares with the LGM otolith records. Based on this modelling, we suggest that Lake Mungo otolith signatures are better explained by evaporation acting on full lakes rather than by lake drying.

Keywords

QuaternaryOxygen isotopesWillandra LakesOtolithsArid zone
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 102 , July 2021 , pp. 234 - 246
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Copyright
Copyright © University of Washington. Published by Cambridge University Press, 2021

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