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Radiocarbon Wiggle Matching on Laminated Sediments Delivers High-Precision Chronologies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 June 2018

Fabian Rey Open the ORCID record for Fabian Rey [Opens in a new window] ,
Erika Gobet ,
Sönke Szidat ,
André F Lotter ,
Adrian Gilli ,
Albert Hafner  and
Willy Tinner
Fabian Rey*
Affiliation:
Institute of Plant Sciences (IPS), University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research (OCCR), University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
Erika Gobet
Affiliation:
Institute of Plant Sciences (IPS), University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research (OCCR), University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
Sönke Szidat
Affiliation:
Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research (OCCR), University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry (DCB), University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
André F Lotter
Affiliation:
Institute of Plant Sciences (IPS), University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research (OCCR), University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
Adrian Gilli
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences (D-ERDW), ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
Albert Hafner
Affiliation:
Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research (OCCR), University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland Institute of Archaeological Sciences (IAW), University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
Willy Tinner
Affiliation:
Institute of Plant Sciences (IPS), University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research (OCCR), University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected].
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Abstract

High-resolution sediment chronologies with the best possible time control are essential for comparing palaeoecological studies with independent high-precision climatic, archaeological or historic data in order to disentangle causes and effects of past environmental, ecological and societal change. We present two varved lake sediment sequences from Moossee and Burgäschisee (Swiss Plateau) that have chronologies developed with Bayesian models and radiocarbon (14C) dating of terrestrial plant macrofossils extracted from sediment samples with constant age ranges. We illustrate the potential of high-resolution 14C dating for the construction of robust, high-precision sediment chronologies. The mean 2σ age uncertainties were reduced to±19 cal yr for Moossee and to±54 cal yr for Burgäschisee over the entire period of 3000 cal yr, while 2σ uncertainties of only±13 cal yr and±18 cal yr respectively, were achieved for shorter time intervals. These precisions are better than or comparable to those of previous varve studies. Our results imply that a sophisticated subsampling strategy and a careful selection of short-lived and well-defined terrestrial plant remains are crucial to avoid outlying 14C ages. A direct linkage between palaeoeological studies with dendrochronologically dated, local archaeological sites as well as a precise comparison with high-resolution climate proxy data have become feasible.

Keywords

age-depth modelingAMS datingOxCalV-sequencevarved lake sediments
Type
Research Article
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 61 , Issue 1 , February 2019 , pp. 265 - 285
Copyright
© 2018 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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References

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