Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T05:56:22.716Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Chronologies for Recent Peat Deposits Using Wiggle-Matched Radiocarbon Ages: Problems with Old Carbon Contamination

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Dan J Charman  and
Mark H Garnett
Dan J Charman*
Affiliation:
School of Geography, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, Devon PL4 8AA, United Kingdom
Mark H Garnett
Affiliation:
NERC Radiocarbon Laboratory, Scottish Enterprise Technology Park, Rankine Avenue, East Kilbride, Glasgow G75 0QF, United Kingdom
*
Corresponding author. Email: dcharman@plymouth.ac.uk.
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Dating sediments which have accumulated over the last few hundred years is critical to the calibration of longer-term paleoclimate records with instrumental climate data. We attempted to use wiggle-matched radiocarbon ages to date 2 peat profiles from northern England which have high-resolution records of paleomoisture variability over the last ∼300 yr. A total of 65 14C accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) measurements were made on 33 macrofossil samples. A number of the age estimates were older than expected and some of the oldest ages occurred in the upper parts of the sequence, which had been dated to the late 19th and early 20th century using other techniques. We suggest that the older 14C ages are the result of contamination by industrial pollution. Based on counts of spheroidal carbonaceous particles (SCPs), the potential aging effect for SCP carbon was calculated and shown to be appreciable for samples from the early 20th century. Ages corrected for this effect were still too old in some cases, which could be a result of fossil CO2 fixation, non-SCP particulate carbon, contamination due to imperfect cleaning of samples, or the “reservoir effect” from fixation of fossil carbon emanating from deeper peat layers. Wiggle matches based on the overall shape of the depth-14C relationship and the 14C minima in the calibration curve could still be identified. These were tested against other age estimates (210Pb, pollen, and SCPs) to provide new age-depth models for the profiles. New approaches are needed to measure the impact of industrially derived carbon on recent sediment ages to provide more secure chronologies over the last few hundred years.

Type
Articles
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 47 , Issue 1 , 2005 , pp. 135 - 145
Copyright
Copyright © 2005 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

References

Appleby, PG, Shotyk, W, Fankhauser, A. 1997. Lead-210 age dating of peat cores in the Jura Mountains, Switzerland. Water Air and Soil Pollution 100:223–31.Google Scholar
Barber, K, Dumayne-Peaty, L, Hughes, P, Mauquoy, D, Scaife, R. 1998. Replicability and variability of the recent macrofossil and proxy-climate record from raised bogs: field stratigraphy and macrofossil data from Bolton Fell Moss and Walton Moss, Cumbria, England. Journal of Quaternary Science 13:515–28.Google Scholar
Blaauw, M. 2003. An investigation of Holocene sun-climate relationships using numerical C-14 wiggle-match dating of peat deposits [PhD dissertation]. Amsterdam: University of Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Blaauw, M, van der Plicht, J, van Geel, B. 2004. Radiocarbon dating of bulk peat samples from raised bogs: non-existence of a previously reported “reservoir effect”? Quaternary Science Reviews 23:1537–42.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2000. OxCal Program v3.5. Oxford: University of Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit. URL: http://www.rlaha.ox.ac.uk/orau/oxcal.html.Google Scholar
Charman, DJ, Brown, AD, Hendon, D, Kimmel, A, Karofeld, E. 2004. Testing the relationship between Holocene peatland palaeoclimate reconstructions and instrumental data. Quaternary Science Reviews 23: 137–43.Google Scholar
Clymo, RS, Oldfield, F, Appleby, PG, Pearson, GW, Ratnesar, P, Richardson, N. 1990. The record of atmospheric deposition on a rainwater-dependent peatland. Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society of London Series B: Biological Sciences 327:331–8.Google Scholar
Gedye, SJ. 1998. Mass balance in recent peats [PhD dissertation]. Liverpool: University of Liverpool.Google Scholar
Hendon, D, Charman, DJ. 2004. High-resolution peatland water table changes for the past 200 years: the influence of climate and implications for management. Holocene 14:125–34.Google Scholar
Hendon, D, Charman, DJ, Kent, M. 2001. Comparisons of the palaeohydrological record derived from testate amoebae analysis from peatlands in northern England: within-site variability, between-site comparability and palaeoclimatic implications. Holocene 11:127–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jungner, H, Sonninen, E, Possnert, G, Tolonen, K. 1995. Use of bomb-produced C-14 to evaluate the amount of CO2 emanating from two peat bogs in Finland. Radiocarbon 37(2):567–73.Google Scholar
Kilian, MR, van Geel, B, van der Plicht, J. 2000. C-14 AMS wiggle matching of raised bog deposits and models of peat accumulation. Quaternary Science Reviews 19:1011–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kilian, MR, van der Plicht, J, van Geel, B. 1995. Dating raised bogs: new aspects of AMS C-14 wiggle matching, a reservoir effect and climatic change. Quaternary Science Reviews 14:959–66.Google Scholar
Levin, I, Hesshaimer, V. 2000. Radiocarbon—a unique tracer of global carbon cycle dynamics. Radiocarbon 42(1):69–80.Google Scholar
Lichtfouse, E, Lichtfouse, M, Jaffrezic, A. 2003. Delta C-13 values of grasses as a novel indicator of pollution by fossil fuel-derived greenhouse gas CO2 in urban areas. Environmental Science and Technology 37:87–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martínez-Cortizas, A, Pontevedra-Pombal, X, García-Rodeja, E, Nóvoa-Muñoz, JC, Shotyk, W. 1999. Mercury in a Spanish peat bog: archive of climate change and atmospheric metal deposition. Science 284:939–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mauquoy, D, van Geel, B, Blaauw, M, van der Plicht, J. 2002. Evidence from northwest European bogs shows “Little Ice Age” climatic changes driven by variations in solar activity. Holocene 12:1–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nilsson, M, Klarqvist, M, Bohlin, E, Possnert, G. 2001. Variation in C-14 age of macrofossils and different fractions of minute peat samples dated by AMS. Holocene 11:579–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oldfield, F, Richardson, N, Appleby, PG. 1995. Radiometric dating (Pb-210, Cs-137, Am-241) of recent ombrotrophic peat accumulation and evidence for changes in mass-balance. Holocene 5:141–8.Google Scholar
Punning, JM, Alliksaar, T. 1997. The trapping of fly-ash particles in the surface layers of Sphagnum-dominated peat. Water Air and Soil Pollution 94:59–69.Google Scholar
Rose, NL, Harlock, S, Appleby, PG, Battarbee, RW. 1995. Dating of recent lake sediments in the United Kingdom and Ireland using spheroidal carbonaceous particle (SCP) concentration profiles. Holocene 5:328–35.Google Scholar
Rose, N. 2001. Fly ash particles. In: Last, WM, Smol, JP, editors. Tracking Environmental Change Using Lake Sediments. Volume 2: Physical and Geochemical Methods. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic. p 319–49.Google Scholar
Schoning, K, Charman, DJ, Wastegård, S. 2005. Reconstructed water tables from two ombrotrophic mires in eastern central Sweden compared with instrumental meteorological data. The Holocene 15(1):111–8.Google Scholar
Speranza, A, van der Plicht, J, van Geel, B. 2000. Improving the time control of the Subboreal/Subatlantic transition in a Czech peat sequence by C-14 wiggle-matching. Quaternary Science Reviews 19:1589–1604.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M, Reimer, PJ, Bard, E, Beck, JW, Burr, GS, Hughen, KA, Kromer, B, McCormac, G, van der Plicht, J, Spurk, M. 1998. IntCal98 radiocarbon age calibration 24,000–0 cal BP. Radiocarbon 40(3):1041–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wardenaar, ECP. 1987. A new hand tool for cutting peat profiles. Canadian Journal of Botany 65:1772–3.Google Scholar
Yang, HD, Rose, NL, Battarbee, RW. 2001. Dating of recent catchment peats using spheroidal carbonaceous particle (SCP) concentration profiles with particular reference to Lochnagar, Scotland. Holocene 11:593–7.Google Scholar