Reconstructing late pleistocene atmospheric radiocarbon using subfossil New Zealand Kauri (Agathis australis)
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Date
2021-11-17
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation
Abstract
Subfossil New Zealand kauri (Agathis australis) buried in bogs across Northland, New Zealand, provide considerable potential for a continuous high-precision radiocarbon calibration curve that extends across the full range of radiocarbon dating. Kauri currently is a significant contributor to our understanding of calibration in this Southern region. The preserved samples also offer a unique opportunity to reconstruct climate events on multi-millennial timescales with annual resolution and carbon concentration. Here we investigate a key site called Waipu, where 40 subfossil trees have been crossdated to form 5 floating chronologies. These series cover collectively 6000 years and preliminary radiocarbon dating suggests a range of ages from 22,000 to 49,000 years BP. Further radiocarbon dating and crossdating of other kauri tree-ring series using the new RingdateR package and visual inspection has identified other trees that may cross-date. This suggests it may be possible to link the floating Waipu series, forming a continuous chronology.If successful this would form the one of the longest subfossil kauri chronologies, with the help of radiocarbon dating. The Waipu chronology would form a world-class palaeo-archive for the Southern Hemisphere and provide a valuable contribution to future iterations of the international calibration curves. © The Authors
Description
Keywords
Pleistocene epoch, Atmospheres, Carbon 14, Fossils, New Zealand, Climates, Tree rings, Southern Hemisphere
Citation
O'Brien, P. P. Turney, C., Palmer, J., Fenwick, P., Hogg, A., Lorrey, A., & Hua, Q. (2021). Reconstructing late pleistocene atmospheric radiocarbon using subfossil New Zealand Kauri (Agathis australis). Paper presented to the 15th International Conference on Accelerator Mass Spectrometry. ANSTO Sydney, Australia. November 15th – 19th, 2021, (pp. 44). Retrieved from: https://ams15sydney.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/AMS-15-Full-Program-and-Abstract-Book-R-1.pdf