期刊
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
卷 112, 期 31, 页码 9542-9545出版社
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1504467112
关键词
fossil fuel emissions; radiocarbon; atmospheric CO2; C-14 dating; isotope forensics
资金
- European Commission through a Marie Curie Career Integration Grant
Radiocarbon analyses are commonly used in a broad range of fields, including earth science, archaeology, forgery detection, isotope forensics, and physiology. Many applications are sensitive to the radiocarbon (C-14) content of atmospheric CO2, which has varied since 1890 as a result of nuclear weapons testing, fossil fuel emissions, and CO2 cycling between atmospheric, oceanic, and terrestrial carbon reservoirs. Over this century, the ratio C-14/C in atmospheric CO2 (Delta(CO2)-C-14 ) will be determined by the amount of fossil fuel combustion, which decreases Delta(CO2)-C-14 because fossil fuels have lost all C-14 from radioactive decay. Simulations of Delta(CO2)-C-14 using the emission scenarios from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fifth Assessment Report, the Representative Concentration Pathways, indicate that ambitious emission reductions could sustain Delta(CO2)-C-14 near the preindustrial level of 0% through 2100, whereas business-as-usual emissions will reduce Delta(CO2)-C-14 to -250%, equivalent to the depletion expected from over 2,000 y of radioactive decay. Given current emissions trends, fossil fuel emission-driven artificial aging of the atmosphere is likely to occur much faster and with a larger magnitude than previously expected. This finding has strong and as yet unrecognized implications for many applications of radiocarbon in various fields, and it implies that radiocarbon dating may no longer provide definitive ages for samples up to 2,000 y old.
作者
我是这篇论文的作者
点击您的名字以认领此论文并将其添加到您的个人资料中。
推荐
暂无数据