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Radiocarbon Variations from Tasmanian Conifers: Results from Three Early Holocene Logs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Mike Barbetti
Affiliation:
The NWG Macintosh Centre for Quaternary Dating, Madsen Building F09, University of Sydney, NSW 2006 Australia
Trevor Bird
Affiliation:
Trades Hall, 219 New Town Road, New Town, Tasmania 7008 Australia
George Dolezal
Affiliation:
The NWG Macintosh Centre for Quaternary Dating, Madsen Building F09, University of Sydney, NSW 2006 Australia
Gillian Taylor
Affiliation:
The NWG Macintosh Centre for Quaternary Dating, Madsen Building F09, University of Sydney, NSW 2006 Australia
Roger Francey
Affiliation:
CSIRO Division of Atmospheric Research, Private Bag No. 1, Mordialloc, Victoria 3195 Australia
Edward Cook
Affiliation:
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, New York 10964 USA
Mike Peterson
Affiliation:
Forestry Corporation, Hobart, Tasmania 7001 Australia
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Abstract

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Dendrochronological studies are being carried out on two conifer species in the Stanley River area of western Tasmania. The chronology for Huon pine (Lagarostrobos franklinii), with living trees up to 1400 yr old, extends back to 571 bc. Living celery-top pine (Phyllocladus aspleniifolius) trees are up to 500 yr old. Apart from living or recently felled trees, sections have been taken from 350 subfossil logs preserved in floodplain sediments. They range in age from >38 ka to modern, with good coverage for the periods 9–3.5 ka and from 2.5 ka to the present. We report here on 14C measurements of decadal samples from three early Holocene logs, between 10 and 9 ka bp, providing short (ca. 300-yr) records of atmospheric 14C variations when plotted against ring numbers. The southern hemisphere data from Tasmania can be compared and wiggle-matched with published 14C calibration curves from German oak and pine. One set of measurements covers the period, ca. 9280–8990 cal bp, overlapping the link between the Hohenheim “Main 9” and middle Holocene master oak chronologies. The other sets of measurements from Tasmania coincide; they span the period, ca. 9840–9480 cal bp, overlapping the end of the German Preboreal pine and the beginning of the oak chronologies. Our measurements confirm that this part of the calibration curve is a gently sloping 14C-age plateau (ca. 8900–8700 bp, between 10,000 and 9500 cal bp), and suggest interhemispheric 14C differences close to zero.

Type
III. Calibration of the 14C Time Scale
Copyright
Copyright © the Department of Geosciences, The University of Arizona 

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