Holocene biomarker data from the Padang peatland, Sumatra

Petter Hällberg, Rienk Smittenberg, Malin Kylander, Joan Villanueva, Nina Davtian, Anggi Hapsari, Jenny Sjöström, Josefine Axelsson, Guillermo Jarne-Bueno, Kweku Yamoah, Hamdi Rifai, Frederik Schenk, Julia Steinbach

This dataset contains biomarker (alkanes, stable isotopes of hydrogen, and anhydrosugars levoglucosan, mannosan and galactosan) and organic carbon concentration and stable isotopes from a Holocene peat core on Sumatra, Indonesia. The dataset was generated for Holocene paleoclimate and paleoenvironmental studies, and covers approximately the last 8000 years.

The alkane in the dataset are sourced from algae and different types of plants. The hydrogen isotopic composition of the alkanes is used for hydroclimate reconstructions. The anhydrosugars are biomass burning products. The data can therefore be used for the reconstruction of rainfall, drought and wildfire conditions.

Alkane concentrations were measured using gas chromatography mass spectrometer (GC-MS). Alkane hydrogen isotopic composition was measured by gas chromatography isotope ratio mass spectrometery (GC-IRMS). Anhgydrosugar data was generated using high performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS). Organic carbon concentration and isotopic composition was measured using an elemental analyzer connected to an isotope ratio mass spectrometer (EA-IRMS).

Citation

Petter Hällberg, Rienk Smittenberg, Malin Kylander, Joan Villanueva, Nina Davtian, Anggi Hapsari, Jenny Sjöström, Josefine Axelsson, Guillermo Jarne-Bueno, Kweku Yamoah, Hamdi Rifai, Frederik Schenk, Julia Steinbach (2024) Holocene biomarker data from the Padang peatland, Sumatra. Dataset version 1. Bolin Centre Database. https://doi.org/10.17043/hallberg-2024-sumatra-1

References

Hällberg P, Smittenberg R, Kylander M, Villanueva J, Davtian N, Hapsari A, Sjöström J, Axelsson J, Jarne-Bueno G, Yamoah K, Rifai H, Schenk F (2024) Disentangling seasonal and annual precipitation signals in the tropics over the Holocene: Insights from δD, alkanes and GDGTs. Quaternary Science Reviews 108948. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2024.108948

Data description

This dataset consists of a compiled .xlsx file containing peat core data from the Padang peatland (2.206732 S, 101.526774 E). The data is also available in separate .csv files. The .xlsx file contains a summary and the following four sheets, with column headers explained:

1. .dD
   1. Age Calibrated age BP
   2. Depth Depth in cm, where 0 = surface
   3. ... 8. C19⁠ – ⁠C33 δD in permille from the C19 n-alkane to the C33 n-alkane.
2. alkanes
   1. Age Calibrated age BP
   2. Depth Depth in cm, where 0 = surface
   3. ... 17. C19⁠ – ⁠C35 Peak area (Vs) from GC-MS for the C19 alkane to the C35 alkane.
3. CN
   1. Age Calibrated age BP
   2. Depth Depth in cm, where 0 = surface
   3. d13C δ¹³C in permille from bulk sediments
   4. TOC Total organic carbon in percent dry weight
   5. TN Total nitrogen in percent dry weight.
4. MAS
   1. Age Calibrated age BP
   2. Depth Depth in cm, where 0 = surface
   3. Mannosan_ng_g Concentration of mannosan in the core in nanogram per gram dry weight
   4. Galactosan_ng_g Concentration of galactosan in the core in nanogram per gram dry weight
   5. Levoglucosan_ng_g Concentration of levoglucosan in the core in nanogram per gram dry weight.