Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-r5zm4 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-23T22:32:08.621Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Temporal and Spatial Variations in Freshwater 14C Reservoir Effects: Lake Mývatn, Northern Iceland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

P L Ascough ,
G T Cook ,
M J Church ,
E Dunbar ,
Á Einarsson ,
T H McGovern ,
A J Dugmore ,
S Perdikaris ,
H Hastie  and
A Friðriksson
...Show all authors
P L Ascough*
Affiliation:
SUERC, Scottish Enterprise Technology Park, Rankine Avenue, East Kilbride G75 0QF, United Kingdom
G T Cook
Affiliation:
SUERC, Scottish Enterprise Technology Park, Rankine Avenue, East Kilbride G75 0QF, United Kingdom
M J Church
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Durham, South Road, Durham, DH1 3LE, United Kingdom
E Dunbar
Affiliation:
SUERC, Scottish Enterprise Technology Park, Rankine Avenue, East Kilbride G75 0QF, United Kingdom
Á Einarsson
Affiliation:
Mývatn Research Station, Skútustaðir, Iceland
T H McGovern
Affiliation:
Hunter Bioarchaeology Laboratory, Hunter College CUNY, New York, New York 10021, USA
A J Dugmore
Affiliation:
Institute of Geography, School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Drummond Street, Edinburgh EH9 8XP, United Kingdom
S Perdikaris
Affiliation:
Institute of Geography, School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Drummond Street, Edinburgh EH9 8XP, United Kingdom
H Hastie
Affiliation:
SUERC, Scottish Enterprise Technology Park, Rankine Avenue, East Kilbride G75 0QF, United Kingdom
A Friðriksson
Affiliation:
Fornleifastofnun íslands (Institute of Archaeology), Iceland
H Gestsdóttir
Affiliation:
Fornleifastofnun íslands (Institute of Archaeology), Iceland
*
Corresponding author. Email: p.ascough@suerc.gla.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.

Lake Mývatn is an interior highland lake in northern Iceland that forms a unique ecosystem of international scientific importance and is surrounded by a landscape rich in archaeological and paleoenvironmental sites. A significant freshwater reservoir effect (FRE) has been identified in carbon from the lake at some Viking (about AD 870–1000) archaeological sites in the wider region (Mývatnssveit). Previous accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) measurements indicated this FRE was about 1500–1900 14C yr. Here, we present the results of a study using stable isotope and 14C measurements to quantify the Mývatn FRE for both the Viking and modern periods. This work has identified a temporally variable FRE that is greatly in excess of previous assessments. New, paired samples of contemporaneous bone from terrestrial herbivores and omnivores (including humans) from Viking sites demonstrate at least some omnivore diets incorporated sufficient freshwater resources to result in a herbivore-omnivore age offset of up to 400 14C yr. Modern samples of benthic detritus, aquatic plants, zooplankton, invertebrates, and freshwater fish indicate an FRE in excess of 5000 14C yr in some species. Likely geothermal mechanisms for this large FRE are discussed, along with implications for both chronological reconstruction and integrated investigation of stable and radioactive isotopes.

Type
Freshwater and Groundwater
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 52 , Issue 3: 20th Int. Radiocarbon Conference Proceedings , 2010 , pp. 1098 - 1112
Copyright
Copyright © 2010 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

References

Adderley, WP, Simpson, IA, Vésteinsson, O. 2008. Local-scale adaptations: a modelled assessment of soil, landscape, microclimatic and management factors in Norse home-field productivities. Geoarchaeology 23(4):500–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ambrose, SH, Norr, LB. 1993. Experimental evidence for the relationship of the carbon isotope ratios of whole diet and dietary protein to those of bone collagen and carbonate. In: Lambert, JB, Grupe, G, editors. Prehistoric Human Bone: Archaeology at the Molecular Level. Berlin: Springer-Verlag. p 1–37.Google Scholar
Arneborg, J, Heinemeier, J, Lynnerup, N, Nielsen, HL, Rud, N, Sveinbjörnsdóttir, ÁE. 1999. Change of diet of the Greenland Vikings determined from stable carbon isotope analysis and 14C dating of their bones. Radiocarbon 41(2):157–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ascough, PL, Cook, GT, Church, MJ, Dugmore, AJ, McGovern, TG, Dunbar, E, Einarsson, Á, Friðriksson, A, Gestsdóttir, H. 2007. Reservoirs and radiocarbon: 14C dating problems in Mývatnssveit, northern Iceland. Radiocarbon 49(2):947–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bird, MI. 2006. Radiocarbon dating of charcoal. In: Elias, SA, editor. The Encyclopaedia of Quaternary Science. Amsterdam: Elsevier. p 2950–7.Google Scholar
Björnsson, A, Johnsen, G, Sigurdsson, S, Thorbergsson, G, Tryggvason, E. 1979. Rifting of the plate boundary in North Iceland 1975–1978. Journal of Geophysical Research 84(B6):3029–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 1995. Radiocarbon calibration and analysis of stratigraphy: the OxCal program. Radiocarbon 37(2):425–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2001. Development of the radiocarbon calibration program. Radiocarbon 43(2A):355–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cabana, G, Rasmussen, JB. 1994. Modelling food chain structure and contaminant bioaccumulation using stable nitrogen isotopes. Nature 372(6503):255–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cabana, G, Rasmussen, JB. 1996. Comparison of aquatic food chains using nitrogen isotopes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 93(20):10,844–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cook, GT, Bonsall, C, Hedges, REM, McSweeney, K, Boroneant, V, Pettitt, PB. 2001. A freshwater diet-derived 14C reservoir effect at the Stone Age sites in the Iron Gates Gorge. Radiocarbon 43(2A):453–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Culleton, BJ. 2006. Implications of a freshwater radiocarbon reservoir correction for the timing of late Holocene settlement of the Elk Hills, Kern County, California. Journal of Archaeological Science 33(9):1331–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DeNiro, MJ, Epstein, S. 1978. Influence of diet on the distribution of carbon isotopes in animals. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 42(5):495–506.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edwards, KJ, Buckland, PC, Dugmore, AJ, McGovern, TH, Simpson, IA, Sveinbjarnardóttir, G. 2004. Landscapes circum-Landnám: Viking settlement in the North Atlantic and its human and ecological consequences - a major new research programme. In: Housley, R, Coles, GM, editors. Atlantic Connections and Adaptations: Economies, Environments and Subsistence in Lands Bordering the North Atlantic. Oxford: David Brown Book Company. p 260–71.Google Scholar
Ehrlinger, JR, Cerling, TE, Helliker, BR. 1997. C4 photosynthesis, atmospheric CO2 and climate. Oecologia 112(3):285–99.Google Scholar
Ehrlinger, JR, Cerling, TE, Dearing, MD. 2002. Atmospheric CO2 as a global climate change driver influencing plant-animal interactions. Integrative and Comparative Biology 42(3):424–30.Google Scholar
Einarsson, Á. 2004. Lake Mývatn and the River Laxá: an introduction. Aquatic Ecology 38(2):111–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Einarsson, Á, Örnólfsdóttir, B. 2004. Long-term changes in benthic Cladocera populations in Lake Mývatn, Iceland. Aquatic Ecology 38(2):253–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eiríksson, J, Knudsen, KL, Haflidason, H, Heinemeier, J. 2000. Chronology of late Holocene climatic events in the northern North Atlantic based on AMS 14C dates and tephra markers from the volcano Hekla, Iceland. Journal of Quaternary Science 15(6):573–80.3.0.CO;2-A>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eiríksson, J, Larsen, G, Knudsen, KL, Heinemeier, J, Símonarson, LA. 2004. Marine reservoir age variability and water mass distribution in the Iceland Sea. Quaternary Science Reviews 23(20–22):2247–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, DR. 2001. Physiological mechanisms influencing plant nitrogen isotope composition. Trends in Plant Science 6(3):121–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fischer, A, Olsen, J, Richards, M, Heinemeier, J, Sveinbjörnsdóttir, ÁE, Bennike, P. 2007. Coast-inland mobility and diet in the Danish Mesolithic and Neolithic: evidence from stable isotope values of humans and dogs. Journal of Archaeological Science 34(12):2125–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geyh, MA, Schleicher, H. 1990. Absolute Age Determination: Physical and Chemical Dating Methods and Their Application. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geyh, M, Schotterer, U, Grosjean, M. 1998. Temporal changes of the 14C reservoir effect in lakes. Radiocarbon 40(2):921–31.Google Scholar
Gratton, C, Donaldson, J, Vander Zanden, MJ. 2008. Ecosystem linkages between lakes and the surrounding terrestrial landscape in Northeast Iceland. Ecosystems 11(5):764–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grönvold, K, Óskarsson, N, Johnsen, SJ, Clausen, HB, Hammer, CU, Bond, G, Bard, E. 1995. Ash layers from Iceland in the Greenland GRIP ice core correlated with oceanic and land sediments. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 135(1–4):149–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, BL, Henderson, GM. 2001. Use of uranium-thorium dating to determine past 14C reservoir effects in lakes: examples from Antarctica. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 193(15):565–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hua, Q, Barbetti, M. 2004. Review of tropospheric bomb 14C data for carbon cycle modeling and age calibration purposes. Radiocarbon 46(3):1273–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jim, S, Ambrose, SH, Evershed, RP. 2004. Stable carbon isotopic evidence for differences in the dietary origin of bone cholesterol, collagen and apatite: implications for their use in palaeodietary reconstruction. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 68(1):61–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kristmannsdóttir, H, Ármannsson, H. 2004. Groundwater in the Lake Mývatn area, northern Iceland: chemistry, origin and interaction. Aquatic Ecology 38(2):115–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lanting, JN, van der Plicht, J. 1998. Reservoir effect and apparent 14C-ages. Journal of Irish Archaeology 9:151–65.Google Scholar
Lawson, IT, Gathorne-Hardy, FJ, Church, MJ, Newton, AJ, Edwards, KJ, Dugmore, AJ, Einarsson, Á. 2007. Environmental impacts of the Norse settlement: palaeoenvironmental data from Mývatnssveit, northern Iceland. Boreas 36(1):1–19.Google Scholar
Levin, I, Hesshaimer, V. 2000. Radiocarbon—a unique tracer of global carbon cycle dynamics. Radiocarbon 42(1):69–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levin, I, Kromer, B. 1997. Twenty years of atmospheric 14CO2 observations at Schauinsland Station, Germany. Radiocarbon 39(2):205–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levin, I, Kromer, B. 2004. The tropospheric 14CO2 level in mid-latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere (1959–2003). Radiocarbon 46(3):1261–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levin, I, Hammer, S, Kromer, B, Meinhardt, F. 2007. Radiocarbon observations in atmospheric CO2: determining fossil fuel CO2 over Europe using Jungfraujoch observations as background. Science of The Total Environment 391(2–3):211–6.Google ScholarPubMed
Longin, R. 1971. New method of collagen extraction for radiocarbon dating. Nature 230(5291):241–2.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Martinelli, LA, Piccolo, MC, Townsend, AR, Vitousek, PM, Cuevas, E, McDowell, W, Robertson, GP, Santos, OC, Treseder, K. 1999. Nitrogen stable isotopic composition of leaves and soil: tropical versus temperate forests. Biogeochemistry 46(1–3):45–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGovern, TH, Perdikaris, S, Einarsson, Á, Sidell, J. 2006. Coastal connections, local fishing and sustainable egg harvesting: patterns of Viking Age inland wild resource use in Mývatn district, northern Iceland. Environmental Archaeology 11(2):187–205.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGovern, TH, Vésteinsson, O, Friðriksson, A, Church, M, Lawson, I, Simpson, IA, Einarsson, Á, Dugmore, A, Cook, G, Perdikaris, S, Edwards, KJ, Thomson, AM, Adderley, WP, Newton, A, Lucas, G, Edvardsson, R, Aldred, O, Dunbar, E. 2007. Landscapes of settlement in northern Iceland: historical ecology of human impact and climate fluctuation on the millennial scale. American Anthropologist 109(1):27–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meints, VW, Boone, IV, Kutz, IT. 1975. Natural 15N abundance in soil, leaves and grains as influenced by long-term addition of fertiliser N at several rates. Journal of Environment Quality 4:486–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Minagawa, M, Wada, E. 1984. Stepwise enrichment of 15N along food chains: further evidence and the relation between δ15N and animal age. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 48(5):1135–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nydal, R. 2000. Radiocarbon in the oceans. Radiocarbon 42(1):81–98.Google Scholar
Post, DM. 2002. Using stable isotopes to estimate trophic position: models, methods, and assumptions. Ecology 83(3):703–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reimer, PJ, Baillie, MGL, Bard, E, Bayliss, A, Beck, JW, Bertrand, CJH, Blackwell, PG, Buck, CE, Burr, GS, Cutler, KB, Damon, PE, Edwards, RL, Fairbanks, RG, Friedrich, M, Guilderson, TP, Hogg, AG, Hughen, KA, Kromer, B, McCormac, G, Manning, S, Bronk Ramsey, C, Reimer, RW, Remmele, S, Southon, JR, Stuiver, M, Talamo, S, Taylor, FW, van der Plicht, J, Weyhenmeyer, CE. 2004. IntCal04 terrestrial radiocarbon age calibration, 0–26 cal kyr BP. Radiocarbon 46(3):1029–58.Google Scholar
Richards, MP, Pettitt, PB, Stiner, MC, Trinkaus, E. 2001. Stable isotope evidence for increasing dietary breadth in the European mid-Upper Paleolithic. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 98(11):6528–32.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sæmundsson, K. 1991. The geology of the Kraa system. In: Gardarsson, A, Einarsson, Á, editors. The Natural History of Mývatn. Reykjavík: Hid íslenska náttúrufrædifélag. p 24–95. In Icelandic.Google Scholar
Sah, SP. 2005. 15N natural abundances in two podsol soils of two spruce forests differing in their atmospheric N deposition conditions. Plant Soil Environment 51(9):416–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schoeninger, MJ, DeNiro, MJ, Tauber, H. 1983. Stable nitrogen isotope ratios of bone collagen reflect marine and terrestrial components of prehistoric human diet. Science 220(4604):1381–3.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sigurgeirsson, AM, Vésteinsson, O, Hafliðason, H. 2002. Gjóskulagarannsóknir við Mývatn-aldursgreining elstu byggðar. In: Vésteinsson, O, editor. Archaeological Investigations at Sveigakot 2001, with Reports on Preliminary Investigations at Hrìsheimar, Selhagi and Ytri Tunga, Fornleifastofnun Íslands. Reykjavík. p 108–10.Google Scholar
Slota, PJ Jr, Jull, AJT, Linick, TW, Toolin, LJ. 1987. Preparation of small samples for 14C accelerator targets by catalytic reduction of CO. Radiocarbon 29(2):303–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stuiver, M, Braziunas, TF. 1993. Modelling atmospheric 14C influences and 14C ages of marine samples to 10,000 BC. Radiocarbon 35(1):137–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stuiver, M, Pearson, GW, Braziunas, T. 1986. Radiocarbon age calibration of marine samples back to 9000 cal yr BP. Radiocarbon 28(2B):980–1021.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sveinbjörnsdóttir, ÁE, Heinemeier, J, Rud, N, Johnsen, SJ. 1992. Radiocarbon anomalies observed for plants growing in Icelandic geothermal waters. Radiocarbon 34(3):696–703.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sveinbjörnsdóttir, ÁE, Heinemeier, J, Arnórsson, S. 1995. Origin of 14C in Icelandic groundwater. Radiocarbon 37(2):551–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thórarinsson, S. 1979. The postglacial history of the Mývatn area. Oikos 32:17–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trumbore, S. 2000. Age of soil organic matter and soil respiration: radiocarbon constraints on belowground C dynamics. Ecological Applications 10(2):399–411.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vandeputte, K, Moens, L, Dams, R. 1996. Improved sealed-tube combustion of organic samples to CO2 for stable isotopic analysis, radiocarbon dating and percent carbon determinations. Analytical Letters 29(15):2761–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wang, Y, Wooller, MJ. 2006. The stable isotopic (C and N) composition of modern plants and lichens from northern Iceland: with paleoenvironmental implications. Jökull 56:27–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Welker, JM, Jónsdóttir, IS, Fahnestock, JT. 2003. Leaf isotopic (δ13C and δ15N) and nitrogen contents of Carex plants along the Eurasian Coastal Arctic: results from the Northeast Passage expedition. Polar Biology 27(1):29–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar