Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-vvkck Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T10:03:21.172Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Discussion: Reporting and Calibration of Post-Bomb 14C Data

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

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 definitive paper by Stuiver and Polach (1977) established the conventions for reporting of radiocarbon data for chronological and geophysical studies based on the radioactive decay of 14C in the sample since the year of sample death or formation. Several ways of reporting 14C activity levels relative to a standard were also established, but no specific instructions were given for reporting nuclear weapons-testing (post-bomb) 14C levels in samples. Because the use of post-bomb 14C is becoming more prevalent in forensics, biology, and geosciences, a convention needs to be adopted. We advocate the use of fraction modern with a new symbol F14C to prevent confusion with the previously used Fm, which may or may not have been fractionation-corrected. We also discuss the calibration of post-bomb 14C samples and the available data sets and compilations, but do not give a recommendation for a particular data set.

Type
Articles
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 46 , Issue 3: IntCal04: Calibration Issue, Guest Editor: PAULA J REIMER , 2004 , pp. 1299 - 1304
Copyright
Copyright © The Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

References

Brown, TA. 1994. Radiocarbon dating of pollen by accelerator mass spectrometry [PhD dissertation]. Seattle: University of Washington.Google Scholar
Campana, SE, Jones, CM. 1998. Radiocarbon from nuclear testing applied to age validation of black drum, Pogonias cromis. Fishery Bulletin 96:185–92.Google Scholar
Cook, GT, Begg, FH, Naysmith, P, Scott, EM, McCartney, M. 1995. Anthropogenic 14C marine geochemistry in the vicinity of a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant. Radiocarbon 37(2):459–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Donahue, DJ, Linick, TW, Jull, AJT. 1990. Isotope-ratio and background corrections for accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon measurements. Radiocarbon 32(2):135–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Druffel, ERM. 1996. Post-bomb radiocarbon records of surface corals from the tropical Atlantic Ocean. Radiocarbon 38(3):563–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Druffel, ERM, Griffin, S. 1995. Regional variability of surface ocean radiocarbon from southern Great Barrier Reef corals. Radiocarbon 37(2):517–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fallon, SJ, Guilderson, TP, Caldeira, K. 2003. Carbon isotope constraints on vertical mixing and air-sea CO2 exchange. Geophysical Research Letters 30: doi:10.1029/2003/GL018049.Google Scholar
Geyh, MA. 2001. Bomb radiocarbon dating of animal tissues and hair. Radiocarbon 43(2B):723–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goslar, T, van der Knaap, WO, Hicks, S, Rasanen, S, Andric, M, Czernik, J, Goslar, E. Forthcoming. 14C dating of modern peat profiles: pre- and post-bomb 14C variations in the construction of age-depth models. Radiocarbon 47(1).Google Scholar
Grootes, PM, Farwell, GW, Schmidt, FH, Leach, DD, Stuiver, M. 1989. Rapid response of tree cellulose radiocarbon content to changes in atmospheric 14CO2 concentration. Tellus 41B:134–48.Google Scholar
Guilderson, TP, Schrag, DP, Goddard, E, Kashgarian, M, Wellington, GM, Linsley, BK. 2000. Southwest subtropical Pacific surface water radiocarbon in a high-resolution coral record. Radiocarbon 42(2):249–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harkness, DD, Walton, A. 1972. Further investigations of the transfer of bomb 14C to man. Nature 240:302–3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hua, Q, Barbetti, M. 2004. Review of tropospheric bomb 14C data for carbon cycle modeling and age calibration purposes. Radiocarbon, this issue.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaplan, IR. 2003. Age dating of environmental organic residues. Environmental Forensics 4:95–141.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kirner, DL, Burky, R, Taylor, RE, Southon, JR. 1997. Radiocarbon dating organic residues at the microgram level. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B—Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms 123:214–7.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 (CO2)-14C 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, this issue.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levin, I, Kromer, B, Schmidt, M, Sartorius, H. 2003. A novel approach for independent budgeting of fossil fuel CO2 over Europe by 14CO2 observations. Geophysical Research Letters 30: article nr 2194.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lovell, MA, Robertson, JD, Buchholz, BA, Xie, C, Markesbery, WR. 2002. Use of bomb pulse carbon-14 to age senile plaques and neurofibrillary tangles in Alzheimer's disease. Neurobiology of Aging 23:179–86.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Manning, MR, Melhuish, WH. 1994. Atmospheric Δ14C record from Wellington. In: Trends: A Compendium of Data on Global Change. ORNL/CDIAC-65. Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U S Department of Energy, Oak Ridge. p 173–202.Google Scholar
McCormac, FG, Reimer, PJ, Hogg, AG, Higham, TFG, Baillie, MGL, Palmer, J, Stuiver, M. 2002. Calibration of the radiocarbon time scale for the Southern Hemisphere: AD 1850–950. Radiocarbon 44(3):641–51.Google Scholar
McGee, EJ, Gallagher, D, Mitchell, PI, Baillie, MGL, Brown, D, Keogh, SM. 2004. Recent chronologies for tree rings and terrestrial archives using 14C bomb fallout history. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 68: 2509–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mook, WG, van der Plicht, J. 1999. Reporting 14C activities and concentrations. Radiocarbon 41(3):227–39.Google Scholar
Nydal, R, Gulliksen, S, Lövseth, K, Skogseth, FH. 1984. Bomb 14C in the ocean surface 1966–1981. Radiocarbon 26(1):7–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nydal, R, Lövseth, K. 1983. Tracing bomb 14C in the atmosphere 1962–1980. Journal of Geophysical Research—Oceans and Atmospheres 88:3621–42.Google Scholar
Puchegger, S, Rom, W, Steier, P. 2000. Automated evaluation of 14C AMS measurements. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 172:274–80.Google Scholar
Randerson, JT, Enting, IG, Schuur, EAG, Caldeira, K, Fung, I Y. 2002. Seasonal and latitudinal variability of troposphere Δ14CO2: post-bomb contributions from fossil fuels, oceans, the stratosphere, and the terrestrial biosphere. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 16: article nr 1112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reddy, CM, Xu, L, O'Connor, R. 2003. Using radiocarbon to apportion sources of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in household soot. Environmental Forensics 4: 191–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stenhouse, MJ, Baxter, MS. 1977. Bomb 14C as a biological tracer. Nature 267:828–32.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stuiver, M, Polach, HA. 1977. Discussion: reporting of 14C data. Radiocarbon 19(3):355–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stuiver, M, Quay, PD. 1981. Atmospheric 14C changes resulting from fossil-fuel CO2 release and cosmic-ray flux variability. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 53:349–62.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M, Reimer, PJ, Braziunas, TF. 1998. High-precision radiocarbon age calibration for terrestrial and marine samples. Radiocarbon 40(3):1127–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stuiver, M, Robinson, SW. 1974. University of Washington GEOSECS North Atlantic carbon-14 results. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 23:87–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tans, P. 1981. A compilation of bomb 14C data for use in global carbon model calculations. In: Bolin, B, editor. Carbon Cycle Modeling (SCOPE 16). New York: John Wiley and Sons. p 131–57.Google Scholar
Trumbore, S. 2000. Age of soil organic matter and soil respiration: radiocarbon constraints on belowground C dynamics. Ecological Applications 10:399–411.Google Scholar
Trumbore, S, Gaudinski, JB, Hanson, PJ, Southon, JR. 2002. Quantifying ecosystem-atmosphere carbon exchange with a 14C label. Eos Transactions AGU 83: 267–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weidman, CR, Jones, GA. 1993. A shell-derived time history of bomb C-14 on Georges Bank and its Labrador Sea implications. Journal of Geophysical Research-Oceans 98:14,577–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wild, E, Golser, R, Hille, P, Kutschera, W, Priller, A, Puchegger, S, Rom, W, Steier, P, Vycudilik, V. 1998. First 14C results from archaeological and forensic studies at the Vienna Environmental Research Accelerator. Radiocarbon 40(1):273–81.Google Scholar