Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T08:14:07.005Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Pollen Concentrate Preparation from Highly Organic Holocene Peat and Lake Deposits for AMS Dating1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Ffiona Richardson  and
Valerie A. Hall
Ffiona Richardson
Affiliation:
Department of Applied Plant Science, Agricultural Botany Research Division, Faculty of Agriculture and Food Science, Queen's University, Newforge Lane Malone Road, Belfast, BT9 5PX, Northern Ireland
Valerie A. Hall
Affiliation:
Institute of Irish Studies, Queen's University, Belfast, BT9 6AW, Northern Ireland
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.

Many of the problems inherent with conventional 14C dating of lake and peat deposits are eliminated by AMS dating of pollen concentrates. Published work describes production of pollen concentrates through expulsion of most of the deposit matrix by repeated deflocculation, selective sieving and final retention of the largest subfossil pollen taxa. Less suited to pollen concentrate production are the highly organic peats and lake muds from the British Isles and Europe. In this study we tested the combined effectiveness of physical, chemical and microbiological degradation and elimination techniques for pollen concentrate production on highly organic peats and a lake mud. We also reviewed methods of enhancing concentrations of smaller sub-fossil pollen grains. Here we present a novel method of assessing AMS dating precision of pollen concentrates by comparing their calibrated dates with a volcanic event of known historical age.

Type
Articles
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 36 , Issue 3 , 1994 , pp. 407 - 412
Copyright
Copyright © The American Journal of Science 

References

Bennett, K. D. 1984 The Postglacial history of Pinus sylvestris in the British Isles. Quaternary Science Reviews 3: 113–155.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowler, M. and Hall, V. A. 1989 The use of sieving during standard pollen pre-treatment of samples of fossil deposits to enhance the concentration of large pollen grains. New Phytologist 111: 511–515.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bradshaw, R. H. W. and Brown, P. 1987 Changing patterns in the Postglacial distribution of Pinus sylvestris in Ireland. Journal of Biogeography 14: 237–248.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, T. A., Nelson, D. E., Mathews, R. W., Vogel, J. S. and Southon, J. R. 1989 Radiocarbon dating of pollen by accelerator mass spectrometry. Quaternary Research 32: 205–212.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burleigh, R., Leese, M. and Tite, M. 1986 An intercomparison of AMS and small gas counter laboratories. in Stuiver, M. and Kra, R. S., eds., Proceedings of the 12th International 14C Conference. Radiocarbon 28 (2A): 571–577.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cwynar, L. C., Burden, E. and McAndrews, J. H. 1979 An inexpensive method for concentrating pollen and spores from fine grained sediment. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 16: 1115–1120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Faegri, K. and Iversen, J. 1989 Textbook of Pollen Analysis, 4th edition. Chicester, John Wiley & Sons: 40–48.Google Scholar
Hall, V. A. 1990 Detecting redeposited pollen in an Irish lake deposit. Irish Naturalists’ Journal 23 (10): 389–428.Google Scholar
Hirons, K. R. 1988 Recruitment of cpr2 pollen from lake sediments; an example from Co Tyrone, Northern Ireland. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 54: 43–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lowe, J. J., Lowe, S., Fowler, S. J., Hedges, R. E. M. and Austin, T. J. F. 1988 Comparison of accelerator and radiometric radiocarbon results obtained from Late Devensian Lateglacial lake sediments from Llyn Gwernan, North Wales, UK. Boreas 17: 355–369.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Sullivan, P. E., Oldfield, F. and Battarbee, R. W. 1973 Preliminary studies of Lough Neagh sediments. 1. Stratigraphy, chronology and pollen analysis. in Birks, H. J. B. and West, R. G., eds., Quaternary Plant Ecology. London, Blackwell Scientific Publications: 267–278.Google Scholar
Peglar, S. M., Fritz, S. C. and Birks, H. J. B. 1989 Vegetation and land-use history at Diss, Norfolk, U.K. Journal of Ecology 11: 203–222.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pilcher, J. R. and Hall, V. A. 1992 Towards a tephrochronology for the Holocene of the north of Ireland. The Holocene 2: 225–259.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pilcher, J. R., Hall, V. A., and McCormac, F. G. (ms.) Dates of Icelandic eruptions from tephra layers in Irish peats. Submitted to The Holocene.Google Scholar
Regnell, J. 1992 Preparing pollen concentrates for AMS dating—a methodological study from a hard-water lake in southern Sweden. Boreas 21: 373–377.CrossRefGoogle Scholar