Hydrological control of the dead carbon fraction in a Holocene tropical speleothem

ML Griffiths; J Fohlmeister; RN Drysdale; Q Hua; KR Johnson; JC Hellstrom; MK Gagan; JX Zhao

Journal article

Hydrological control of the dead carbon fraction in a Holocene tropical speleothem

ML Griffiths, J Fohlmeister, RN Drysdale, Q Hua, KR Johnson, JC Hellstrom, MK Gagan, JX Zhao

Quaternary Geochronology | Published : 2012

DOI: 10.1016/j.quageo.2012.04.001

Abstract

Over the past decade, a number of speleothem studies have used radiocarbon (14C) to address a range of palaeoclimate problems. These have included the use of the bomb pulse 14C to anchor chronologies over the last 60 years, the combination of U-Th and 14C measurements to improve the radiocarbon age-calibration curve, and linking atmospheric 14C variations with climate change. An issue with a number of these studies is how to constrain, or interpret, variations in the amount of radioactively dead carbon (i.e. the dead carbon fraction, or DCF) that reduces radiocarbon concentrations in speleothems. In this study, we use 14C, stable-isotopes, and trace-elements in a U-Th dated speleothem from F..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Russell Drysdale Author

John Hellstrom Author

Grants

Awarded by Australian Research Council

Funding Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank W.S. Hantoro, B. Suwargadi, N. Anderson, G. Smith, J. Rutledge, S. Lewis, E. St Pierre, E. Yulianto, and the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) for logistical support and technical assistance with fieldwork, which was carried out under LIPI Research Permit number 2748/SU.3/KS/2007. We also thank members of the AMS team at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) for their help with sample preparation and AMS measurements. This research was supported by the NOAA/UCAR Climate and Global Change Postdoctoral Fellowship to M.L.G., an Australian Institute of Nuclear Science and Engineering (AINSE) award for AMS <SUP>14</SUP>C analyses (Grants 08/146 and 10/148) to R.N.D. and M.L.G., and an Australian Research Council Discovery grant DP0663274 to M.K.G., R.N.D., and W.S.H. J.F. was funded by the German Science Foundation (research group 668 - Daphne). This study was greatly improved through helpful comments and suggestions from Christoph Spotl, Dirk Hoffmann and an anonymous reviewer.