Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-s22k5 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-11T22:06:22.295Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Modeling the Radiocarbon Reservoir Effect in Lacustrine Systems

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Shi-Yong Yu ,
Ji Shen  and
Steven M Colman
Shi-Yong Yu*
Affiliation:
Large Lakes Observatory, University of Minnesota Duluth, 2205 East 5th Street, Duluth, Minnesota 55812, USA
Ji Shen
Affiliation:
Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, People's Republic of China
Steven M Colman
Affiliation:
Large Lakes Observatory, University of Minnesota Duluth, 2205 East 5th Street, Duluth, Minnesota 55812, USA Department of Geological Sciences, University of Minnesota Duluth, Duluth, Minnesota 55812, USA
*
Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
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.

The modern water (both pre- and post-atmospheric nuclear testing) of most lakes has an anomalously old apparent radiocarbon age due to what is commonly referred to as the “reservoir effect.” In contrast to marine settings, this 14C-offset phenomenon is primarily caused by pre-aged carbon discharged to lakes by rivers and/or groundwater. In this paper, a 2-component box model based on the principle of 14C mass balance in lake water and in the early diagenesis zone was formulated to address the relative importance of terrestrial inputs, autochthonous production, and biogeochemical processes in the 14C reservoir of a lacustrine system. The model was tested using observed data from Lake Qinghai, the largest inland water body in China. Our inverse modeling using Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) techniques yields best estimates of the δ14C of DIC in river (∼118% modern) and groundwater (∼76% modern), as well as the δ14C of DOC in river water (∼70% modern) during the post-bomb era. Assuming that these parameters remain constant over time, our modeling indicates that both the DIC and DOC pool of this lake have reservoir ages of about 1500 yr for the pre-bomb era, generally consistent with estimates obtained by extrapolation of the age-depth models of 2 sediment cores to the sediment surface.

Type
Articles
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 49 , Issue 3 , 2007 , pp. 1241 - 1254
Copyright
Copyright © 2007 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

References

Abbott, MB, Stafford, TW Jr. 1996. Radiocarbon geochemistry of modern and ancient Arctic lake systems, Baffin Island, Canada. Quaternary Research 45(3):300–11.Google Scholar
Benson, L. 1993. Factors affecting 14C ages of lacustrine carbonates: timing and duration of the last highstand lake in the Lahontan Basin. Quaternary Research 39(2): 163–74.Google Scholar
Berner, RA. 1980. Early Diagenesis: A Theoretical Approach. Princeton: Princeton University. 256 p.Google Scholar
Broecker, WS, Olson, EA. 1960. Radiocarbon from nuclear tests, II. Science 132(3429):712–21.Google Scholar
Broecker, WS, Walton, A. 1959. The geochemistry of 14C in fresh-water systems. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 16(1–3): 15–38.Google Scholar
Cole, JJ, Caraco, NF, Kling, GW, Kratz, TK. 1994. Carbon dioxide supersaturation in the surface waters of lakes. Science 265(5178):1568–70.Google Scholar
Colman, SM, King, JW, Jones, GA, Reynolds, RL, Bothner, MH. 2000. Holocene and recent sediment accumulation rates in southern Lake Michigan. Quaternary Science Reviews 19(16):1563–80.Google Scholar
Deevey, ES, Stuiver, M. 1964. Distribution of natural isotopes of carbon in Linsley Pond and other New England lakes. Limnology and Oceanography 9(3):1–11.Google Scholar
Deevey, ES, Gross, MS, Hutchinson, GE, Kraybill, HL. 1954. The natural 14C contents of materials from hardwater lakes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) 40(5):285–8.Google Scholar
Doran, PT, Berger, GW, Lyons, WB, Wharton, RA Jr, Davisson, ML, Southon, J, Dibb, JE. 1999. Dating Quaternary lacustrine sediments in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 147(3–4):223–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Einsele, G, Yan, J, Hinderer, M. 2001. Atmospheric carbon burial in modern lake basins and its significance for the global carbon budget. Global and Planetary Change 30(3–4):167–95.Google Scholar
Fontes, JC, Mélières, F, Gibert, E, Qing, L, Gasse, F. 1993. Stable isotope and radiocarbon balances of two Tibetan lakes (Sumxi Co, Longmu Co) from 13,000 BP. Quaternary Science Reviews 12(10):875–87.Google Scholar
Fowler, AJ, Gillespie, R, Hedges, REM. 1986. Radiocarbon dating of sediments. Radiocarbon 28(2A):441–50.Google Scholar
Geyh, MA, Schotterer, U, Grosjean, M. 1998. Temporal changes of the 14C reservoir effect in lakes. Radiocarbon 40(2):921–31.Google Scholar
Geyh, MA, Grosjean, M, Nuñez, L, Schotterer, U. 1999. Radiocarbon reservoir effect and the timing of the late-glacial/early Holocene humid phase in the Atacama Desert (northern Chile). Quaternary Research 52(2): 143–53.Google Scholar
Gilks, WR, Richardson, S, Spiegelhalter, DJ. 1996. Markov Chain Monte Carlo in Practice. Boca Raton: Chapman & Hall/CRC. 512 p.Google Scholar
Godwin, H. 1951. Comments on radiocarbon dating for samples from the British Isles. American Journal of Science 249:301–7.Google Scholar
Hall, BL, Henderson, GM. 2001. Use of uranium-thorium dating to determine past 14C reservoir effects in lakes: examples from Antarctica. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 193(3–4):565–77.Google Scholar
Henderson, ACG. 2004. Late Holocene environmental change on the NE Tibetan Plateau: a palaeolimnological study of Lake Qinghai and Lake Gahai, China, based on stable isotopes [unpublished PhD dissertation]. London: University College London.Google Scholar
Henderson, ACG, Holmes, JA, Zhang, JW, Leng, MJ, Carvalho, LR. 2003. A carbon- and oxygen-isotope record of recent environmental change from Qinghai Lake, NE Tibetan Plateau. Chinese Science Bulletin 48: 1463–8.Google Scholar
Hendy, CH, Hall, BL. 2006. The radiocarbon reservoir effect in proglacial lakes: examples from Antarctica. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 241(3–4):413–21.Google Scholar
Huang, Q, Sun, NJ. 1989. Preliminary study on depositing rate of Qinghai Lake and its evolution of paleoclimate. Chinese Science Bulletin 34:1457–62.Google Scholar
Kelts, K, Chen, KZ, Lister, GS, Yu, JQ, Gao, ZH, Niessen, N, Bonani, G. 1989. Geological fingerprints of climate history: a cooperative study of Qinghai Lake, China. Eclogae Geologicae Helvetiae 82:167–82.Google Scholar
Lister, GS, Kelts, K, Chen, KZ, Yu, J-Q, Niessen, F. 1991. Lake Qinghai, China: closed-basin lake levels and the oxygen isotope record for ostracoda since the latest Pleistocene. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 84(1–4):141–62.Google Scholar
MacDonald, GM, Beukens, RP, Kieser, WE. 1991. Radiocarbon dating of limnic sediments: a comparative analysis and discussion. Ecology 72(3):1150–5.Google Scholar
Moreton, SG, Rosqvist, GC, Davies, SJ, Bentley, MJ. 2004. Radiocarbon reservoir ages from freshwater lakes, South Georgia, sub-Antarctic: modern analogues from particulate organic matter and surface sediments. Radiocarbon 46(2):621–6.Google Scholar
Nelson, RE, Carter, LD, Robinson, SW. 1988. Anomalous radiocarbon ages from Holocene detrital organic lens in Alaska and their implications for radiocarbon dating and paleoenvironmental reconstructions in the Arctic. Quaternary Research 29(3):66–71.Google Scholar
Pearson, GW, Pilcher, JR, Baillie, MGL, Corbett, DM, Qua, F. 1986. High-precision 14C measurement of Irish oaks to show the natural 14C variations from AD 1840 to 5210 BC. Radiocarbon 28(2B):911–34.Google Scholar
Peng, T-H, Broecker, W. 1980. Gas exchange rates for three closed-basin lakes. Limnology and Oceanography 25(5):789–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raymond, PA, Bauer, JE. 2001. Riverine export of aged terrestrial organic matter to the North Atlantic Ocean. Nature 409(6819):497–500.Google Scholar
RCRE-CAS (Research Center for Resource and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences). 1994. Evolution of Recent Environment in Qinghai Lake and Its Prediction. Beijing: Science Press. In Chinese.Google Scholar
Rea, DK, Colman, SM. 1995. Radiocarbon ages of pre-bomb clams and the hardwater effect in lakes Michigan and Huron. Journal of Paleolimnology 14(3):89–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shen, J, Zhang, EL, Xia, WL. 2001. Records from lake sediments of the Qinghai Lake to mirror climatic and environmental changes of the past about 1000 years. Quaternary Sciences 21:508–13. In Chinese.Google Scholar
Shen, J, Liu, XQ, Wang, SM, Matsumotob, R. 2005. Palaeoclimatic changes in the Qinghai Lake area during the last 18,000 years. Quaternary International 136(3):131–40.Google Scholar
Stiller, M, Kaufman, A, Carmi, I, Mintz, G. 2001. Calibration of lacustrine sediment ages using the relationship between 14C levels in lake waters and in the atmosphere: the case of Lake Kinneret. Radiocarbon 43(2B):821–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stuiver, M, Braziunas, TF. 1993. Modeling atmospheric 14C influences and 14C ages of marine samples to 10,000 BC. Radiocarbon 35(3):137–89.Google Scholar
Tarantola, A. 2005. Inverse Problem Theory and Methods for Model Parameter Estimation. Philadelphia: Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. 352 p.Google Scholar
Tonneijck, FH, van der Plicht, J, Jansen, B, Verstraten, JM, Hooghiemstra, H. 2007. Radiocarbon dating of soil organic matter fractions in Andosols in northern Ecuador. Radiocarbon 48(3):337–53.Google Scholar
Westrich, JT, Berner, RA. 1984. The role of sedimentary organic matter in bacterial sulfate reduction: the G model tested. Limnology and Oceanography 29(2):236–49.Google Scholar
Xu, H, Ai, L, Tan, L, An, Z. 2006a. Geochronology of a surface core in the northern basin of Lake Qinghai: evidence from 210Pb and 137Cs radionuclides. Chinese Journal of Geochemistry 25(4):301–6.Google Scholar
Xu, H, Ai, L, Tan, L, An, Z. 2006b. Stable isotopes in bulk carbonates and organic matter in recent sediments of Lake Qinghai and their climatic implications. Chemical Geology 235(3–4):262–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Xu, S, Zheng, G. 2003. Variations in radiocarbon ages of various organic fractions in core sediments from Erhai Lake, SW China. Geochemical Journal 37(3):135–44.Google Scholar
Zhang, EL. 2003. Climate and environment change during the past 1000 years in Qinghai Lake [unpublished Master's thesis]. Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Sciences.Google Scholar