title: Reconstruction of the Amazon Basin effective moisture availability over the past 14,000 years.
abstract: Quantifying the moisture history of the Amazon Basin is essential for understanding the cause of rain forest diversity and its potential as a methane source. We reconstructed the Amazon River outflow history for the past 14,000 years to provide a moisture budget for the river drainage basin. The oxygen isotopic composition of planktonic foraminifera recovered from a marine sediment core in a region of Amazon River discharge shows that the Amazon Basin was extremely dry during the Younger Dryas, with the discharge reduced by at least 40% as compared with that of today. After the Younger Dryas, a meltwater-driven discharge event was followed by a steady increase in the Amazon Basin effective moisture throughout the Holocene.
authors: Environmental Change Research Centre, Department of Geography, University College London, 26 Bedford Way, London, WC1H 0AP, UK. mmaslin@geog.ucl.ac.uk
authors: M A
authors: MA
authors: Maslin
authors: S J
authors: SJ
authors: Burns
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001267:Atlantic Ocean; D001938:Brazil; D002980:Climate; D056890:Eukaryota / Q000737:chemistry*; D005618:Fresh Water; D019015:Geologic Sediments; D008697:Methane; D010103:Oxygen Isotopes / Q000032:analysis*; D012623:Seawater; D013696:Temperature; D013997:Time Factors; D015048:Zooplankton / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D010103:Oxygen Isotopes; D008697:Methane