Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T00:48:00.711Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Radiocarbon Anomalies from Old CO2 in the Soil and Canopy Air

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Steven Soter*
Affiliation:
Environmental Studies Program, New York University, and Department of Astrophysics, American Museum of Natural History, New York, New York, USA. Email: soter@amnh.org.
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.

The canopies of forests and cultivated fields can retard the ventilation of CO2 respired from the soil. The plants in dense canopies can then acquire a small fraction of their carbon by recycling some of the respired CO2. Furthermore, some plants can assimilate a small fraction of their carbon by uptake of CO2 in the soil via their roots. In tectonically active areas, the diffuse flux of CO2 from geological sources may be comparable to that from normal soil respiration. In such areas, both the canopy and root uptake effects may allow plants to acquire a measurable fraction of their carbon from geological sources. Because this “old” carbon lacks radiocarbon, its assimilation would increase the apparent 14C ages of the plants. These effects may account for some of the discrepancies between archaeological and 14C dates.

Type
Soils and Sediments
Copyright
Copyright © 2011 The Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

References

REFERENCES

Atkin, OK, Westbeek, MHM, Cambridge, ML, Lambers, H, Pons, TL. 1997. Leaf respiration in light and darkness. Plant Physiology 113(3):961–5.Google Scholar
Bekele, A, Kellman, L, Beltrami, H. 2007. Soil profile CO2 concentrations in forested and clear cut sites in Nova Scotia, Canada. Forest Ecology and Management 242:587–97.Google Scholar
Berry, SC, Varney, GT, Flanagan, LB. 1997. Leaf δ13C in Pinus resinosa trees and understory plants: variation associated with light and CO2 gradients. Oecologia 109(4):499506.Google Scholar
Betson, NR, Göttlicher, SG, Hall, M, Wallin, G, Richter, A. 2007. No diurnal variation in rate or carbon isotope composition of soil respiration in a boreal forest. Tree Physiology 27(5):749–56.Google Scholar
Bolstad, PV, Davis, KJ, Martin, J, Cook, BD, Wang, W. 2004. Component and whole-system respiration fluxes in northern deciduous forests. Tree Physiology 24(5):493504.Google Scholar
Brooks, JR, Flanagan, LB, Varney, GT, Ehleringer, JR. 1997. Vertical gradients in photosynthetic gas exchange characteristics and refixation of respired CO2 within boreal forest canopies. Tree Physiology 17(1):112.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bruns, M, Levin, I, Münnich, KO, Hubberten, HW, Fillipakis, S. 1980. Regional sources of volcanic carbon dioxide and their influence on 14C content of present-day plant material. Radiocarbon 22(2):532–6.Google Scholar
Buchmann, N, Ehleringer, JR. 1998. CO2 concentration profiles, and carbon and oxygen isotopes in C3 and C4 crop canopies. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 89(1):4558.Google Scholar
Buchmann, N, Brooks, JR, Ehleringer, JR. 2002. Predicting daytime carbon isotope ratios of atmospheric CO2 within forest canopies. Functional Ecology 16(1):4957.Google Scholar
Buyanovsky, GA, Wagner, GH. 1983. Annual cycles of carbon dioxide level in soil air. Soil Science Society of America Journal 47:1140–5.Google Scholar
Calderoni, G, Turi, B. 1998. Major constraints on the use of radiocarbon dating for tephrochronology. Quaternary International 47–48:153–9.Google Scholar
Chatters, RM, Crosby, JW, Engstrand, LG. 1969. Fumarole gaseous emanations: their influence on carbon-14 dates. Circular 12, College of Engineering, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington.Google Scholar
Chiodini, G, Frondini, F, Kerrick, DM, Rogie, J, Parello, F, Peruzzi, L, Zanzari, AR. 1999. Quantification of deep CO2 fluxes from central Italy. Examples of carbon balance for regional aquifers and of soil diffuse degassing. Chemical Geology 159(1–4):205–22.Google Scholar
Chiodini, G, Cardellini, C, Amato, A, Boschi, E, Caliro, S, Frondini, F, Ventura, G. 2004. Carbon dioxide Earth degassing and seismogenesis in central and southern Italy. Geophysical Research Letters 31: L07615.Google Scholar
Ciotoli, G, Etiope, G, Guerra, M, Lombardi, S. 1999. The detection of concealed faults in the Ofanto Basin using correlation between soil-gas fracture surveys. Tectonophysics 301(3–4):321–32.Google Scholar
Cook, AC, Hainsworth, LJ, Sorey, ML, Evans, WC, Southon, JR. 2001. Radiocarbon studies of plant leaves and tree rings from Mammoth Mountain, CA: a long-term record of magmatic CO2 release. Chemical Geology 177(1–2):117–31.Google Scholar
Cramer, MD. 2002. Inorganic carbon utilization by root systems. In: Waisel, Y, Eshel, A, Kafkafi, U, editors. Plant Roots: The Hidden Half. New York: Marcel Dekker Inc. p 699715.Google Scholar
Cramer, MD, Richards, MB. 1999. The effect of rhizosphere dissolved inorganic carbon on gas exchange characteristics and growth rates of tomato seedlings. Journal of Experimental Botany 50(330):7987.Google Scholar
Enoch, HZ, Olesen, JM. 1993. Plant response to irrigation with water enriched with carbon dioxide. New Phytology 125(2):249–58.Google Scholar
Etiope, G. 1997. Migration in the ground of CO2 and other volatile contaminants. Theory and survey. In: Raschi, A, Milglietta, E, Tognetti, R, van Gardingen, PR, editors. Plant Response to Elevated CO2: Evidence from Natural Springs. New York: Cambridge University Press. p 720.Google Scholar
Etiope, G. 1999. Subsoil CO2 and CH4 and their advective transfer from faulted grassland to the atmosphere. Journal of Geophysical Research 104(D14):16,88994.Google Scholar
Etiope, G, Lombardi, S. 1995. Evidence for radon transport by carrier gas through faulted clays in Italy. Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry 193(2):291300.Google Scholar
Ford, CR, Wurzburger, N, Hendrick, RL, Teskey, RO. 2007. Soil DIC uptake and fixation in Pinus taeda seedlings and its C contribution to plant tissues and ectomycorrhizal fungi. Tree Physiology 27(3):375–83.Google Scholar
Frondini, F, Caliro, S, Cardellini, C, Chiodini, G, Morgantini, N, Parello, F. 2008. Carbon dioxide degassing from Tuscany and Northern Latium (Italy). Global and Planetary Change 61(1–2):89102.Google Scholar
Gambardella, B, Cardellini, C, Chiodini, G, Frondini, F, Marini, L, Ottonello, G, Zuccolini, MV. 2004. Fluxes of deep CO2 in the volcanic areas of central-southern Italy. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 136(1–2):3152.Google Scholar
Garnett, MH, Billett, MF. 2007. Do riparian plants fix CO2 lost by evasion from surface waters? An investigation using carbon isotopes. Radiocarbon 49(2):9931001.Google Scholar
Gaudinski, JB, Trumbore, SE, Davidson, EA, Zheng, S. 2000. Soil carbon cycling in a temperate forest: radiocarbon-based estimates of residence times, sequestration rates and partitioning of fluxes. Biogeochemistry 51(1):3369.Google Scholar
Greaver, T, Sternberg, L, Schaffer, B, Moreno, T. 2005. An empirical method of measuring CO2 recycling by isotopic enrichment of respired CO2 . Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 128(1–2):6779.Google Scholar
Gu, L, Baldocchi, D, Verma, SB, Black, TA, Vesala, T, Falge, EM, Dowty, PR. 2002. Advantages of diffuse radiation for terrestrial ecosystem productivity. Journal of Geophysical Research 107(D6):4050, doi: 10.1029/2001JD001242.Google Scholar
Guerra, M, Lombardi, S. 2001. Soil-gas method for tracing neotectonic faults in clay basins: the Pisticci field (Southern Italy). Tectonophysics 339(3–4):511–22.Google Scholar
Guidi, A, Whitehouse, V, Whitehouse, R. 1996. A radiocarbon chronology for the Bronze Age: the Italian situation. Acta Archaeologica 67:271–82.Google Scholar
Hamada, Y, Tanaka, T. 2001. Dynamics of carbon dioxide in soil profiles based on long-term field observation. Hydrological Processes 15:1829–45.Google Scholar
Irwin, WP, Barnes, I. 1980. Tectonic relations of carbon dioxide discharges and earthquakes. Journal of Geophysical Research 85(B6):3115–21.Google Scholar
Jassal, R, Black, A, Novak, M, Morgenstern, K, Nesic, Z, Gaumont-Guay, D. 2005. Relationship between soil CO2 and forest-floor CO2 effluxes. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 130(3–4):176–92.Google Scholar
Keeling, CD. 1961. A mechanism for cyclic enrichment of carbon-12 in terrestrial plants. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 24(3–4):299313.Google Scholar
Kerrick, DM. 2001. Present and past nonanthropogenic CO2 degassing from the solid Earth. Reviews of Geophysics 39(4):565–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kodama, N, Barnard, RL, Salmon, Y, Weston, C, Ferrio, JP, Holst, J, Werner, RA, Saurer, M, Rennenberg, H, Buchmann, N, Gessler, A. 2008. Temporal dynamics of the carbon isotope composition of a Pinus sylvestris stand: from newly assimilated organic carbon to respired carbon dioxide. Oecologia 156(4):737–50.Google Scholar
Law, BE, Ryan, MG, Anthoni, PM. 1999. Seasonal and annual respiration of a ponderosa pine ecosystem. Global Change Biology 5(2):169–82.Google Scholar
Lloyd, J, Kruijt, B, Hollinger, DY, Grace, J, Francey, RF, Wong, S-C, Kelliher, FM, Miranda, AC, Farquhar, GD, Gash, JHC, Vygodskaya, NN, Wright, IR, Miranda, HS, Schulze, D-D. 1996. Vegetation effects on the isotopic composition of atmospheric CO2 at local and regional scales: theoretical aspects and a comparison between rain forest in Amazonia and a boreal forest in Siberia. Australian Journal of Plant Physiology 23(3):371–99.Google Scholar
Minissale, A. 2004. Origin, transport and discharge of CO2 in central Italy. Earth Science Reviews 66(1–2):89141.Google Scholar
Minissale, A, Magro, G, Vaselli, O, Verrucchi, C, Perticone, I. 1997. Geochemistry of water and gas discharges from the Mt. Amiata silicic complex and surroundings areas (central Italy). Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 79(3–4):223–51.Google Scholar
Mörner, N-A, Etiope, G. 2002. Carbon degassing from the lithosphere. Global and Planetary Change 33(1):185203.Google Scholar
Pasquier-Cardin, A, Allard, P, Ferreira, T, Hatté, C, Colutinho, R, Fontugne, M, Jaudon, M. 1999. Magma-derived CO2 emissions recorded in 14C and 13C content of plants growing in Furnas caldera, Azores. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 92(1–2):195207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raich, JW, Schlesinger, WH. 1992. The global carbon dioxide flux in soil respiration and its relation to vegetation and climate. Tellus B 44(2):8199.Google Scholar
Rogie, JD, Kerrick, DM, Chiodini, G, Frondini, F. 2000. Flux measurements of nonvolcanic CO2 emission from some vents in central Italy. Journal of Geophysical Research 105(B4):8435–45.Google Scholar
Saupé, F, Strappa, O, Coppens, R, Guillet, B, Jaegy, R. 1980. A possible source of error in 14C dates: volcanic emanations (examples from the Monte Amiata district, provinces of Grosseto and Sienna, Italy). Radiocarbon 22(2):525–31.Google Scholar
Saurer, M, Cherubini, P, Bonani, G, Seigwolf, R. 2003. Tracing carbon uptake from a natural CO2 spring into tree rings: an isotope approach. Tree Physiology 23(14):9971004.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schleser, GH, Jayasekera, R. 1985. δ13C-variations of leaves in forests as an indication of reassimilated CO2 from the soil. Oecologia 65(4):536–42.Google Scholar
Shi, P-L, Zhang, X-Z, Zhong, Z-M, Ouyang, J. 2006. Diurnal and seasonal variability of soil CO2 efflux in a cropland ecosystem on the Tibetan Plateau. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 137(3–4):220–33.Google Scholar
Skok, J, Chorney, W, Broecker, WS. 1962. Uptake of CO2 by roots of Xanthium plants. Botanical Gazette 124(2):118–20.Google Scholar
Stemmet, MC, de Bruyn, JA, Zeeman, PB. 1962. The uptake of carbon dioxide by plant roots. Plant and Soil 17(3):357–64.Google Scholar
Sternberg, LDSL, Mulkey, SS, Wright, SJ. 1989. Ecological interpretation of leaf carbon isotope ratios: influence of respired carbon dioxide. Ecology 70(5):1317–24.Google Scholar
Stolwijk, JAJ, Thimann, KV. 1957. On the uptake of carbon dioxide and bicarbonate by roots, and its influence on growth. Plant Physiology 32:513–20.Google Scholar
Sulerzhitsky, CD. 1971. Radiocarbon dating of volcanoes. Bulletin of Volcanology 35(1):8594.Google Scholar
Tang, J, Baldocchi, DD, Xu, L. 2005. Tree photosynthesis modulates soil respiration on a diurnal time scale. Global Change Biology 11(8):1298–304.Google Scholar
Trumbore, S. 2000. Age of soil organic matter and soil respiration: radiocarbon constraints on belowground C dynamics. Ecological Applications 10(2):399411.Google Scholar
Vodnik, D, Kastelec, D, Pfanz, H, Macek, I, Turk, B. 2006. Small-scale variation in soil CO2 concentration in a natural carbon dioxide spring and some related plant responses. Geoderma 133:309–19.Google Scholar
Vuorinen, AH, Kaiser, WM. 1997. Dark CO2 fixation by roots of willow and barley in media with a high level of inorganic carbon. Journal of Plant Physiology 151:405–8.Google Scholar
Vuorinen, AH, Vapaavuori, EM, Raatikainen, O, Lapinjoki, SP. 1992. Metabolism of inorganic carbon taken up by roots in Salix plants. Journal of Experimental Botany 43(6):789–95.Google Scholar
Werner, C, Unger, S, Pereira, JS, Maia, R, David, TS, Kurz-Besson, C, David, JD, Maguas, C. 2006. Importance of short-term dynamics in carbon isotope ratios of ecosystem respiration (δ13C) in a Mediterranean oak woodland and linkage to environmental factors. New Phytologist 172(2):330–46.Google Scholar
Wickman, F. 1952. Variations in the relative abundance in the carbon isotopes in plants. Geochemica et Cosmochemica Acta 2:243–54.Google Scholar
Yuste, JC, Nagy, M, Janssens, IA, Carrara, A, Ceulemans, R. 2005. Soil respiration in a mixed temperate forest and its contribution to total ecosystem respiration. Tree Physiology 25(5):609–19.Google Scholar
Zha, T, Xing, Z, Wang, K-Y, Kellomaki, S, Barr, AG. 2007. Total and component carbon fluxes of a Scots pine ecosystem from chamber measurements and eddy covariance. Annals of Botany 99:345–53.Google Scholar