Oxygen isotopes in biogenic silica (δ18O BSi) from lake sediments allow for quantitative reconstruction of past hydroclimate and proxy–model comparison in terrestrial environments. The signals of individual records have been attributed to different factors, such as air temperature (T air ), atmospheric circulation patterns, hydrological changes and lake evaporation. Here, we provide 55 composite down–core records published to date and complemented with additional lake basin parameters (e.g. lake water residence time and catchment size) to best characterize the signal properties. Records feature widely different temporal coverage and resolution ranging from decadal–scale records covering the last 150 years to records with multi–millennial scale resolution spanning glacial–interglacial cycles. Best coverage in number of records (N=37) and datapoints (N=2112) is available for northern hemispheric (NH) extra–tropic regions throughout the Holocene (corresponding to Marine Isotope Stage 1; MIS 1).
This dataset contains fractional abundances of the 15 commonly-measured branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraether (brGDGT) lipids in 43 lake surface sediments. It also contains 5 air temperature variables (mean annual temperature (MAT); mean air temperature of months above freezing (MAF); warmest month temperature (WMT); mean summer temperature (MST); summer warmth index (SWI)), mean lake water conductivity, pH, and dissolved oxygen, and minimum dissolved oxygen. Finally, it contains basic lake parameters, including coordinates, maximum lake water depth, and approximate surface area.