Browsing by Author "Southon, J"

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    Changes in El Niño - Southern Oscillation (ENSO) conditions during the Greenland Stadial 1 (GS-1) chronozone revealed by New Zealand tree-rings
    (Elsevier, 2016-12-01) Palmer, JG; Turney, CSM; Cook, ER; Fenwick, P; Thomas, ZA; Helle, G; Jones, RT; Clement, A; Hogg, AG; Southon, J; Bronk Ramsey, C; Staff, R; Muscheler, R; Corrège, T; Hua, Q
    The warming trend at the end of the last glacial was disrupted by rapid cooling clearly identified in Greenland (Greenland Stadial 1 or GS-1) and Europe (Younger Dryas Stadial or YD). This reversal to glacial-like conditions is one of the best known examples of abrupt change but the exact timing and global spatial extent remain uncertain. Whilst the wider Atlantic region has a network of high-resolution proxy records spanning GS-1, the Pacific Ocean suffers from a scarcity of sub-decadally resolved sequences. Here we report the results from an investigation into a tree-ring chronology from northern New Zealand aimed at addressing the paucity of data. The conifer tree species kauri (Agathis australis) is known from contemporary studies to be sensitive to regional climate changes. An analysis of a ‘historic’ 452-year kauri chronology confirms a tropical-Pacific teleconnection via the El Niño – Southern Oscillation (ENSO). We then focus our study on a 1010-year sub-fossil kauri chronology that has been precisely dated by comprehensive radiocarbon dating and contains a striking ring-width downturn between ∼12,500 and 12,380 cal BP within GS-1. Wavelet analysis shows a marked increase in ENSO-like periodicities occurring after the downturn event. Comparison to low- and mid-latitude Pacific records suggests a coherency with ENSO and Southern Hemisphere atmospheric circulation change during this period. The driver(s) for this climate event remain unclear but may be related to solar changes that subsequently led to establishment and/or increased expression of ENSO across the mid-latitudes of the Pacific, seemingly independent of the Atlantic and polar regions. © 2016, Elsevier Ltd.
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    Effect of N2O, catalyst, and means of water vapor removal on the graphitization of small CO2 samples.
    (University of Arizona, 2006-04-03) Smith, AM; Petrenko, VV; Hua, Q; Southon, J; Brailsford, G
    The effect of nitrous oxide (N2O) Upon the graphitization of small (similar to 40 mu g of carbon) CO2 samples at the ANSTO and University of California, Irvine, radiocarbon laboratories was investigated. Both laboratories produce graphite samples by reduction of CO2 over a heated iron catalyst in the presence of an excess of H-2. Although there are significant differences between the methods employed at each laboratory, it was found that N2O has no effect upon the reaction at levels of up to 9.3% by volume Of CO2. Further, it was systematically determined that more effective water vapor trapping resulted in faster reaction rates. Using larger amounts of the Fe catalyst generally resulted in higher yields or reaction rates (but not both). The effects of changing the type of Fe catalyst on the final yield and reaction rate were less clear.
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    SHCal20 Southern Hemisphere calibration, 0–55,000 years cal BP
    (Cambridge University Press, 2020-08-12) Hogg, AG; Heaton, TJ; Hua, Q; Palmer, JG; Turney, CSM; Southon, J; Bayliss, A; Blackwell, PG; Boswijk, G; Bronk Ramsey, C; Pearson, C; Petchey, F; Reimer, P; Wacker, L
    Early researchers of radiocarbon levels in Southern Hemisphere tree rings identified a variable North-South hemispheric offset, necessitating construction of a separate radiocarbon calibration curve for the South. We present here SHCal20, a revised calibration curve from 0–55,000 cal BP, based upon SHCal13 and fortified by the addition of 14 new tree-ring data sets in the 2140–0, 3520–3453, 3608–3590 and 13,140–11,375 cal BP time intervals. We detail the statistical approaches used for curve construction and present recommendations for the use of the Northern Hemisphere curve (IntCal20), the Southern Hemisphere curve (SHCal20) and suggest where application of an equal mixture of the curves might be more appropriate. Using our Bayesian spline with errors-in-variables methodology, and based upon a comparison of Southern Hemisphere tree-ring data compared with contemporaneous Northern Hemisphere data, we estimate the mean Southern Hemisphere offset to be 36 ± 27 14C yrs older. © 2020 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.