Caveats of the Isotopic Paleothermometer: Spatial and Temporal Isotope – Temperature Relationships

Caveats of the Isotopic Paleothermometer: Spatial and Temporal Isotope – Temperature Relationships | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Caveats of the Isotopic Paleothermometer: Spatial and Temporal Isotope – Temperature Relationships Mathieu Casado, Adriana Bailey, Christophe Leroy Dos Santos, Elise Fourre, and 15 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-4630109/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 13 Apr, 2026 Read the published version in Nature Geoscience → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Water isotopes are a tracer of hydrological processes and a paleoclimate proxy from ice core records. The isotopic signal is acquired throughout the hydrological cycle, from evaporation over the ocean, during each precipitation event, and during post-depositional processes such as isotopic exchange between snow and atmospheric moisture. Due to these multiple contributions, the isotopic paleothermometer (i.e., the relationship between isotope ratios in ice and local temperature, on which past climatic reconstructions are based) is only empirically calibrated. Yet, different isotope-to-temperature relationships are obtained spatially in surface snow and temporally in precipitation. Here, we report the vapour isotopic composition monitored on a traverse across East Antarctica as well as at two fixed locations: the coastal site of Dumont D’Urville and the inland station of Concordia. We show that the isotope-to-temperature relationship is inherently different using vapour isotopic composition temporally and spatially across the East Antarctic Plateau due to fundamental differences in the variations of the rainout fraction across time and space. Since the Rayleigh distillation predicts parallel evolution of vapour and precipitation isotopic composition, our results can be directly transferred to the interpretation of the isotopic signal in ice core records. Earth and environmental sciences/Climate sciences/Palaeoclimate Earth and environmental sciences/Climate sciences/Cryospheric science Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files SupplEAIISTwatervapourisov5NG.pdf Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 13 Apr, 2026 Read the published version in Nature Geoscience → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-4630109","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":329229409,"identity":"1221a77c-1f58-4551-a10f-9e7fd37254e7","order_by":0,"name":"Mathieu Casado","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA/UlEQVRIiWNgGAWjYHACNoYEGJOHwQZIMjYewK+DGUVLGkhLA2EtcMDDcBhM49Wi237+2IMHFYcZ+NuPP/zwpuK83dr2w0BbamyicWkxO5PMbpBw5jCDxJkcY8k5Z24nbzuTCNRyLC23AZeWA8lsEolthxkMGHIYpHnbbiebHQBqYWw4jFvL+cdALf+AWvifP/7N23Yu2ez8QwJaboBsaQBqkUgwA9pywM7sBiFbbjw2k0g4ls4jceONmeWcM8kJZjeAtiTg88v5xGeSP2qs5fj70x/feFNhZ292Pv3hgw81Nji1wAAPjJEIVplAQDkKsCdF8SgYBaNgFIwMAABRlWNHqyGdigAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8185-415X","institution":"Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Mathieu","middleName":"","lastName":"Casado","suffix":""},{"id":329229410,"identity":"b167a341-7356-44be-9fc6-692edd172976","order_by":1,"name":"Adriana Bailey","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2614-1560","institution":"Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering, University of Michigan","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Adriana","middleName":"","lastName":"Bailey","suffix":""},{"id":329229411,"identity":"c0c8b0ce-dd28-4214-8fd3-8ee420963981","order_by":2,"name":"Christophe Leroy Dos Santos","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Christophe","middleName":"Leroy Dos","lastName":"Santos","suffix":""},{"id":329229412,"identity":"45130f12-48c4-4fd8-9a96-5d09b516875e","order_by":3,"name":"Elise Fourre","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2554-9660","institution":"Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Elise","middleName":"","lastName":"Fourre","suffix":""},{"id":329229413,"identity":"f6b2377e-d7ec-4521-9a7e-4b883010b051","order_by":4,"name":"Vincent Favier","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6024-9498","institution":"Université Grenoble Alpes","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Vincent","middleName":"","lastName":"Favier","suffix":""},{"id":329229414,"identity":"59d33811-36d6-41af-aa27-050deb6bb7cb","order_by":5,"name":"Cécile Agosta","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, LSCE-IPSL, CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Université Paris-Saclay","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Cécile","middleName":"","lastName":"Agosta","suffix":""},{"id":329229415,"identity":"dd31a5ea-c8bc-4fe9-99c5-cf9f516176b3","order_by":6,"name":"Christoph Kittel","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Institut des Géosciences de l’Environnement, University Grenoble Alpes/CNRS/IRD/G-INP","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Christoph","middleName":"","lastName":"Kittel","suffix":""},{"id":329229416,"identity":"f9c84739-09a4-4fbd-ad57-cd60cee1dc47","order_by":7,"name":"Laurent Arnaud","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Univ. 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