Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T07:35:34.885Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Radiocarbon in Tropospheric CO2 and Organic Materials from Selected Northern Hemisphere Sites

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Ellen R. M. Druffel
Affiliation:
University of California, Department of Earth System Science, Irvine, California 92697-3100 USA
Sheila Griffin
Affiliation:
University of California, Department of Earth System Science, Irvine, California 92697-3100 USA
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.

Radiocarbon was measured in atmospheric CO2 from La Jolla, California and in living organic materials from six sites in the northern hemisphere. Atmospheric CO214C values from La Jolla agreed with those previously published records from China Lake, California (Berger et al. 1987) and Vermunt, Austria (Levin et al. 1985). ∆14C values of fruit and grain samples that grew during 1980 agreed with the atmospheric CO214C measurements. Most of the ∆14C results of fruit and corn samples stored since the 1940s agreed with tree-ring ∆14C values for the same time period. In general, agreement was found between the atmospheric CO2 or tree-ring ∆14C records available for the Northern Hemisphere and the ∆14C signatures of rapidly exchanging organic matter pools examined in this study. Exceptions were the ∆14C values of carbonate from egg shells and that of organic carbon from egg insides, which demonstrate that bicarbonate and organic carbon within the egg follow different biochemical pathways.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The American Journal of Science 

References

Berger, R., Jackson, T., Michel, R. and Suess, H. 1987 Radiocarbon content of tropospheric CO2 at China Lake, California 1977–1983. Radiocarbon 29(1): 1823.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Druffel, E. M. and Linick, T. W. 1978 Radiocarbon in annual coral rings from Florida. Geophysical Research Letters 5: 913916.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keeling, C., Mook, W. and Tans, P. 1979 Recent trends in the 13C/12C ratio of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Nature 277(5692): 121123.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levin, I., Kromer, B., Schoch-Fischer, H., Bruns, M., Munnich, M., Berdaun, D., Vogel, J. C. and Munnich, K. O. 1985 25 years of tropospheric 14C observations in Central Europe. Radiocarbon 27(1): 119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Linick, T. 1980 Bomb-produced 14C in the surface water of the Pacific Ocean. Radiocarbon 22(3): 599606.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lott, N. 1980 National Climatic Data Center. In Report No. 144310, Surface Weather Observations, Lindbergh Field, San Diego, California. National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service, Asheville, North Carolina.Google Scholar
Nydal, R. and Lovseth, K. 1983 Tracing bomb 14C in the atmosphere. Journal of Geophysical Research 88: 36213646.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stuiver, M. and Polach, H. A. 1977 Discussion: Reporting of 14C data. Radiocarbon 19(3): 355363.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stuiver, M. and Quay, P. 1981 Atmospheric 14C changes resulting from fossil fuel CO2 release and cosmic ray flux variability. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 53: 349362.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Suess, H. E. 1953 Natural radiocarbon and the rate of exchange of carbon dioxide between the atmosphere and the sea. In Proceedings of the Conference on Geological Settings. Chicago, University of Chicago Press: 52–56.Google Scholar