Journal
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS
Volume 43, Issue 2, Pages 735-742Publisher
AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION
DOI: 10.1002/2015GL066983
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Funding
- Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsradet)
- [637-2014-499]
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Accurate geochronologies are crucial for reconstructing the sensitivity of brackish and estuarine environments to dynamic external impacts of the past. Radiocarbon (C-14) dating is commonly used for palaeoclimate studies, but its application in brackish environments is severely limited by an inability to quantify spatiotemporal variations in C-14 reservoir age, or R(t), due to dynamic interplay between river runoff and marine water. Additionally, old carbon effects and species-specific behavioral processes also influence C-14 ages. Using the world's largest brackish water body (the estuarine Baltic Sea) as a test bed, combined with a comprehensive approach that objectively excludes both old carbon (using GIS) and species-specific C-14 effects, we demonstrate the use of Sr-87/Sr-86 ratios for quantifying R(t) in ubiquitous mollusc shell material, leading to almost an order of magnitude increase in Baltic Sea C-14 geochronological precision over the current state of the art. We propose that similar proxy methods can be developed for other brackish water bodies worldwide.
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