Radiocarbon dating

The AMS radiocarbon dating is a radiometric dating application, based on the radioactive decay of ¹⁴C-nuclides. Carbon-based components are analyzed to perform a precise age determination of limnic sediments. These components of the heterogeneous sediments were formed shortly before the sedimentation. Beside macroscopic plant-remains (leafs, seeds, wood or charcoal) terrestrial microfossils (pollen) are suitable for AMS dating.

In our research group sediment samples are treated with different chemical and mechanical separation techniques to generate pure pollen concentrates. Here the focus lies on pollen separation performed using flow cytometry at the Institute of experimental Immunology (University of Bonn). Thereby particles can be characterized based on fluorescence signals and can be sorted afterwards. Age estimations of the sorted pollen concentrates and isolated plant remains are performed in cooperation with specialized laboratories (e.g., ETH Zurich, University of Cologne).

Each particle is characterized according to its substance specific fluorescence signals for different wavelengths. The presentation in the scatter plot allows the particles’ categorization into individual populations. © AG Litt

Literatur:

Piotrowska, N., Bluszcz, A., Demske, D., Granoszewski, W., Heumann, G., 2004. Extraction and AMS radiocarbon dating of pollen from Lake Baikal sediments. Radiocarbon 46: 181-187. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033822200039503

Synal, H.A., Stocker, M., Suter, M., 2007. MICADAS: A new compact radiocarbon AMS system. Nuclear Instruments & Methods in Physics Research Section B-Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms 259: 7-13.

Tennant, R.K., Jones, R.T., Brock, F., Cooke, C., Turney, C.S.M., Love, J., Lee, R., 2013. A new flow cytometry method enabling rapid purification of fossil pollen from terrestrial sediments for AMS radiocarbon dating. Journal of Quaternary Science 28: 229-236.

Zimmerman, S.R.H., Brown, T.A., Hassel, C., Heck, J., 2019. Testing pollen sorted by flow cytometry as the basis for high-resolution lacustrine chronologies. Radiocarbon 61: 359-374.