A 13,000-year reconstruction of Southern Hemisphere Westerlies using South Atlantic pollen and plant wax isotopes

The pollen assemblage record from Tarn 2 (600 m asl), East Falkland spans 2,300 to 12,700 cal BP. Samples were processed, IDed, and counted with quantitative black ceramic microspheres at the University of Maine. The assemblage has 17 taxa identified with Nothofagus, Podocarpus, and Ephedra noted as non-native to the local island ecology. Data is presented as raw counts per slide, percentage (%) of the upland sum, pollen concentration (grains/cm3), and pollen accumulation rates (grains/cm2/yr). The upland sum includes all taxa except trilete, monolete, and Cyperaceae (due to aquatic).The plant wax biomarkers (long chain n-alkanes) from Tarn 2 also spans 2,300 to 12,700 cal BP. Samples were processed at the University of Cincinnati. Alkanes were isolated by chain length with concentration measured as ug/g of sediment. For each chain length, stable isotopes were measure then reported as VSMOW for hydrogen (dD) and VDPB (d13C) isotopes.The age model for Tarn 2 is constrained by seven macrofossil radiocarbon dates. The associated age model for the pollen assemblage accumulation rates was constructed with INTCAL20 under R.Bacon. The age model is published in Spoth, M., Hall, B., Lowell, T., Diefendorf, A.F., Corcoran, M.C. and Brickle, P., 2023. Tracking the southern hemisphere westerlies during and since the last glacial maximum with multiproxy lake records from the Falkland Islands (52 S). Quaternary Science Reviews, 311, p.108135 (doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2023.108135).