Underestimation of fine grain quartz OSL dating towards the Eemian: Comparison with palynostratigraphy from Azzano Decimo, northeastern Italy

Palynostratigraphical records have been used to understand the response of vegetation to climate change, and benefit from independent dating to ensure a robust correlation with global climate and sea-level change. In order to constrain the pollen chronology of a long sedimentary core taken at Azzano Decimo in the Friulian foreland of northeastern Italy, optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) has been applied to fine grain quartz. The samples meet all the standard performance criteria set to test the reliability of the single-aliquot regenerative-dose (SAR) protocol, and still show increasing dose response at 500 Gy. OSL ages are in good agreement with radiocarbon dating and the pollen interpretation down to 70 ka, and with D(e) values of similar to 140 Gy, but below this point, they display an increasing age underestimation towards the Eemian and beyond. The comparison of D(e) values measured using both a SAR and single-aliquot regeneration and added-dose (SARA) protocol, confirmed that both were successfully correcting for sensitivity changes in the quartz during measurement of the burial dose, and this was not the reason for the age underestimation. The quartz OSL dose response curve for all samples is best described by a saturating exponential plus linear (SEPL) function. Although all underestimated ages are derived from D(e) values that fall on the high dose linear region of this curve, it is unclear if this is the cause of the underestimation. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.