Extended Cave Drip Water Time Series Captures the 2015–2016 El Niño in Northern Borneo

Abstract

Time series of cave drip water oxygen isotopes (δ18O) provide site-specific assessments of the contributions of climate and karst processes to stalagmite δ18O records employed for hydroclimate reconstructions. We present ~12-year-long time series of biweekly cave drip water δ18O variations from three sites as well as a daily resolved local rainfall δ18O record from Gunung Mulu National Park in northern Borneo. Drip water δ18O variations closely match rainfall δ18O variations averaged over the preceding 3–18 months. We observe coherent interannual drip water δ18O variability of ~3‰ to 5‰ related to the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO), with sustained positive rainfall and drip water δ18O anomalies observed during the 2015/2016 El Niño. Evidence of nonlinear behavior at one of three drip water monitoring sites implies a time-varying contribution from a longer-term reservoir. Our results suggest that well-replicated, high-resolution stalagmite δ18O reconstructions from Mulu could characterize past ENSO-related variability in regional hydroclimate.