Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T04:47:52.855Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Radiocarbon Dates from a Holocene Deposit in Southwestern Australia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

J R Dodson  and
Weijian Zhou
J R Dodson
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia 6907. Email: [email protected]
Weijian Zhou
Affiliation:
Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an 710054, Shaanxi Province, China
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.

A radiocarbon chronology has been developed using shell, bulk peat, and paired charcoal and pollen preparations from a peat and clay sequence in southwestern Australia. The results indicate the sequence is of Holocene age, and the mid-Holocene was a period of rapid sediment deposition. The earliest record is based on Bothriembyron sp. snail shell and there is a strong indication that the deposit had a stratigraphic hiatus between 9600 and 4700 BP. Modern shell of the snail has no ancient reservoir effect. The bulk peat ages were a little younger than associated AMS determinations on hand-picked charcoal and residues from pollen preparations. As a group, paired charcoal and pollen based dates were indistinguishable in age. This implies that the sedimentary charcoal shows no significant storage and transport time in the catchment before deposition. This is important when interpreting pollen records and sedimentary charcoal to reconstruct fire and vegetation dynamics and inter-relationships.

Type
Articles
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 42 , Issue 2 , 2000 , pp. 229 - 234
Copyright
Copyright © 2000 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

References

Blong, RJ, Gillespie, R. 1978. Old carbon in new sediments. Search 9:166.Google Scholar
Churchill, DM. 1968. The distribution and prehistory of Eucalyptus diversicolor F. Muell., E. marginata Donn ex Sm., and E. calophylla R. Br. in relation to rainfall. Australian Journal of Botany 16:125–51.Google Scholar
Dodson, JR, Lu, JJ. 2000. A late Holocene vegetation and environment record from Byenup lagoon, south-western Australia. Australian Geographer 31:41–54.Google Scholar
Jowsey, PC. 1966. An improved peat sampler. New Phytologist 65:245–8.Google Scholar
Kendrick, GW. 1977. Middle Holocene marine molluscs from near Guilford, Western Australia, and evidence for climatic change. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 59:53–66 Google Scholar
Long, A, Davis, OK, Lanois, JD. 1992. Separation and 14C dating of pure pollen from lake sediments: nanofossil AMS dating. Radiocarbon 34(3):557–60.Google Scholar
Newsome, JC, Pickett, EJ. 1993. Palynology and palaeoclimatic interpretations of two Holocene sequences from southwestern Australia. Palaegeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 101:245–61.Google Scholar
Regnell, J. 1992. Preparing pollen concentrates for AMS dating: methodological study from a hard-water lake in southern Sweden. Boreas 21:373–7.CrossRefGoogle 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.Google Scholar
Zhou, WJ, Donahue, D, Jull, AJT. 1997. Radiocarbon AMS dating of pollen concentrated from eolian sediments: implications for monsoon climate change since the Late Quaternary. Radiocarbon 39(1):19–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhou, WJ, Head, MJ, Wang, FB, Donahue, D, Jull, AJT. 1999. The reliability of AMS radiocarbon dating of shells from China. Radiocarbon 41(1): 17–24.Google Scholar