Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T16:10:36.416Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

14C Dating of Laminated Sediments from Loch Ness, Scotland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

M. C. Cooper ,
P.E. O'Sullivan ,
D. D. Harkness ,
E. M. Lawson ,
D. Bull ,
A. E. S. Kemp ,
Sylvia M. Peglar ,
Nina M. Matthews ,
R. I. Jones  and
A. J. Shine
M. C. Cooper
Affiliation:
Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Plymouth, Plymouth PL4 8AA, United Kingdom
P.E. O'Sullivan*
Affiliation:
Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Plymouth, Plymouth PL4 8AA, United Kingdom
D. D. Harkness
Affiliation:
NERC Radiocarbon Laboratory, East Kilbride, Glasgow G75 0QF, Scotland
E. M. Lawson
Affiliation:
Antares Mass Spectrometry Facility (ANSTO), PMB 1, Menai, NSW 2234, Australia
D. Bull
Affiliation:
Department of Oceanography, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom
A. E. S. Kemp
Affiliation:
Department of Oceanography, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom
Sylvia M. Peglar
Affiliation:
Botanical Institute, University of Bergen, Allégaten 41, N-5007 Bergen, Norway
Nina M. Matthews
Affiliation:
Science Centre, Cornwall College, Pool, Redruth, TR15 3RD, Cornwall, United Kingdom
R. I. Jones
Affiliation:
Institute of Environmental and Biological Sciences, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4YQ, United Kingdom
A. J. Shine
Affiliation:
Loch Ness Project, Loch Ness Centre, Drumnadrochit, Inverness IV3 6TU, Scotland
*
2Author to whom correspondence should be addressed
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Radiometric and AMS radiocarbon dating of a 6-m sediment core from Loch Ness, Scotland, indicates that it represents perhaps the very end of the Late Pleistocene, and the first ca. 7500 yr of the Holocene. Counts of laminations observed in the Holocene section of the core suggest that they are present in sufficient number to constitute annual laminations (varves), an hypothesis consistent with the pollen record, which contains a sequence of zones representative of the Early, Middle and part of the Late Holocene regional vegetation history. On the basis of BSEM and X-ray studies of sediments, and modern seston trap data, the laminations are believed to be produced by winter floods, which introduce increased silt loading into the Loch. Sediment for the rest of the year is mostly composed of clay-sized material. This hypothesis is being further tested, however, by continuing sedimentological and microfossil studies.

Time-depth relations for the core based on calibrated 14C dates and lamination counts, respectively, illustrate the close correspondence between the two sets of data. The latter are therefore now being used to develop a varve chronology for the Holocene for Loch Ness. This will then in turn be used for further chronological studies, and for investigations of palaeoclimatic variations over the eastern North Atlantic, to which the signal of lamination thickness in the sediments is thought to be particularly sensitive. They may also eventually be used for calibration studies, employing 14C dating of specific carbon compounds, or groups of compounds extracted from the sediment using modern organic geochemical methods.

Type
Part 2: Applications
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 40 , Issue 2: 16th International Radiocarbon Conference June 16-20, 1997 Part 2: Applications, Conference Editors: Willem G. Mook Johannes van der Plicht , 1997 , pp. 781 - 793
Copyright
Copyright © The American Journal of Science 

References

Bennett, K. D. 1995 Postglacial dynamics of pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) and pinewoods in Scotland. In Aldhous, J. R., ed., Our Pinewood Heritage. Edinburgh, Forestry Commission, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Scottish Natural Heritage: 23–39.Google Scholar
Cooper, M. C. 1998a The use of digital image analysis in the study of laminated sediments. Journal of Paleolimnology 19: 33–40.Google Scholar
Cooper, M. C. (ms.) 1998b Paleoecology of Laminated Sediments in Loch Ness, Scotland. Ph.D. thesis, University of Plymouth.Google Scholar
Cooper, M. C. and O'Sullivan, P. E. 1997 The laminated sediments of Loch Ness: Preliminary construction of a chronology of sedimentation, and its use in assessing Holocene climatic variability. Paleogeography, Paleoecology, Palaeoclimatology (in press).Google Scholar
Dean, J. (ms.) Ph.D. thesis, University of Southampton, in preparation.Google Scholar
Eglinton, T. I., Aluwihare, L. I., Bauer, J. E., Druffel, E. R. M. and McNichol, A. P. 1996 Gas chromatographic isolation of individual compounds from complex matrices for radiocarbon dating. Analytical Chemistry 68(5): 904–912.Google Scholar
Jones, V. J., Battarbee, R. W., Rose, N. L., Curtis, C., Appleby, P. G., Harriman, R. and Shine, A. J. 1997 Evidence for the pollution of Loch Ness from analysis of its recent sediments. The Science of the Total Environment 203: 37–49.Google Scholar
Kemp, A. E. S. 1990 Sedimentary fabrics and variation in lamination style in Peru continental margin upwelling sediments. In Suess, E., von Heune, R. et al., eds., Proceedings of ODP, Scientific Results, 112. Ocean Drilling Program. College Station, Texas, 43–58.Google Scholar
Kullenberg, B. 1947 The piston core sampler. Svenska Hydrografiske-Biologiske Kommissionens Skrifter. Ser. 3, no. 1: 1–46.Google Scholar
Maitland, P. S. 1981 Introduction and catchment analysis. In Maitland, P. S., ed., The Ecology of Scotland's Largest Lochs: Lomond, Awe, Ness, Morar and Shiel. Monographiae Biologicae no. 44. The Hague, Dr. W. Junk: 1–27.Google Scholar
O'Sullivan, P. E. 1977 Vegetation history. In Bunce, R. G. H. and Jeffers, J. N. R., eds., The Native Pinewoods of Scotland. London, Institute of Terrestrial Ecology: 60–69.Google Scholar
O'Sullivan, P. E. 1983 Annually laminated sediments and the study of Quaternary environmental changes – a review. Quaternary Science Reviews 1: 245–313.Google Scholar
O'Sullivan, P. E. 1994 Improving the accuracy of radiocarbon dates using laminated sediments. In Hicks, S. P., Miller, U. and Saarnisto, M., eds., Laminated Sediments. Rixensart, Belgium, Council of Europe: 63–88.Google Scholar
Pennington, W., Bonny, A. P., Haworth, E. Y. and Lishman, J. P. 1972 Lake sediments in Northern Scotland. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B246: 191–294.Google Scholar
Schimmelman, A., Lange, C. B. and Berger, W. H. 1990 Climatically controlled marker layers in Santa Barbara basin sediments and fine scale core-to-core correlation. Limnology and Oceanography 35: 165–173.Google Scholar
Smith, I. R., Lyle, A. A. and Rosie, A. J. 1981 Comparative physical limnology. In Maitland, P. S., ed., The Ecology of Scotland's Largest Lochs: Lomond, Awe, Ness, Morar and Shiel Monographiae Biologicae no. 44. The Hague, Dr. W. Junk: 29–65.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M. and Reimer, P. J. 1993 Extended 14C data base and revised CALIB 3.0 14C age calibration program. In Stuiver, M., Long, A. and Kra, R. S., eds., Calibration 1993. Radiocarbon 35(1): 215–230.Google Scholar
Sturm, M. 1979 Origin and composition of clastic varves. In Schlüchter, C., ed., Moraines and Varves. Rotterdam, Balkema: 281–285.Google Scholar
Walanus, A. and Goslar, T. 1993 Komputerowe pomiary grubosci lamin. In Ralska-Jasiewiczowa, M., ed., Polish Botanical Studies, Guidebook Series 8: 121–125 (in Polish with English summary).Google Scholar
Wraige, E. J., Belt, S. T., Lewis, C. A., Cooke, D. A., Robert, J. M., Massé, G and Rowland, S. J. 1997 Variations in structures and distributions of C25 highly branched isoprenoid (HBI) alkenes in cultures of the diatom, Haslea ostrearia (Simonsen). Organic Geochemistry 27: 497–505.Google Scholar