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Calibration of Radiocarbon Ages and the Interpretation of Paleoenvironmental Records

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Patrick J. Bartlein ,
Mary E. Edwards ,
Sarah L. Shafer  and
Edward D. Barker Jr.
Patrick J. Bartlein
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403-1251
Mary E. Edwards
Affiliation:
Departments of Geology and Geophysics, and Biology and Wildlife, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Alaska 99775-0760
Sarah L. Shafer
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403-1251
Edward D. Barker Jr.
Affiliation:
College of Community and Continuing Education, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Alaska 99775
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Abstract

Calibration of the radiocarbon timescale of paleoecological records is essential if they are to be explained correctly in terms of their governing ecological or climatological controls. The differences between calendar ages and radiocarbon ages that arise from variations in 14C production through time can distort the chronologies of individual records and the interpretations based on them. Misleading impressions of synchrony or diachrony of events among multiple records can result, and estimates of the apparent duration of episodes and rates of sedimentation and local population changes can be biased. Displays of the temporal patterns of migration or extinction may also be affected. Spurious correlations may arise between records with radiocarbon-controlled chronologies and time series of potential controls that are expressed on a calendar time scale. Support for particular explanations of features in a paleoecological record may vary depending on whether radiocarbon ages are calibrated or not. This situation is illustrated using the eastern Beringian Populus subzone as an example. When the radiocarbon ages that control the timing of the Populus subzone are calibrated, the contemporaneous decrease in ice volume and increase in summer insolation are implicated as the ultimate controls of the occurrence of the subzone.

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 44 , Issue 3 , November 1995 , pp. 417 - 424
Copyright
University of Washington

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