TEMPORAL CHANGE OF RADIOCARBON RESERVOIR EFFECT IN SUGAN LAKE, NORTHWEST CHINA DURING THE LATE HOLOCENE

Many lacustrine chronology records suffer front radiocarbon reservoir effects. A Continuous, accurate varve chronology, in conjunction with accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) C-14 dating, was used to determine the age of lacustrine sediment and to quantify the past C-14 reservoir effect in Sugan Lake (China). Reservoir age varied from 4340 to 2590 yr due to C-14-depleted water in the late Holocene. However, during the Little Ice Age (LIA), C-14 reservoir age was relatively stable. According to this study, C-14 reservoir age in the late Holocene may be driven by hydrological and climatic changes of this period. Therefore. special caution should be paid to tire correction of the C-14 reservoir effect by a unique C-14 reservoir age in paleoclimatic and paleolimnological study of northwest China.