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Originally published in Science Express on 6 December 2001
Science 21 December 2001:
Vol. 294. no. 5551, pp. 2529 - 2532
DOI: 10.1126/science.1066114
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Reports

Regional 14CO2 Offsets in the Troposphere: Magnitude, Mechanisms, and Consequences

Bernd Kromer,1* Sturt W. Manning,3 Peter Ian Kuniholm,4 Maryanne W. Newton,4 Marco Spurk,5 Ingeborg Levin2

Radiocarbon dating methods typically assume that there are no significant tropospheric 14CO2 gradients within the low- to mid-latitude zone of the Northern Hemisphere. Comparison of tree ring 14C data from southern Germany and Anatolia supports this assumption in general but also documents episodes of significant short-term regional 14CO2 offsets. We suggest that the offset is caused by an enhanced seasonal 14CO2 cycle, with seasonally peaked flux of stratospheric 14C into the troposphere during periods of low solar magnetic activity, coinciding with substantial atmospheric cooling. Short-term episodes of regional 14CO2 offsets are important to palaeoclimate studies and to high-resolution archaeological dating.

1 Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften,
2 Institut für Umweltphysik der Universität Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 229, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany.
3 Department of Archaeology, University of Reading, Post Office Box 218 Whiteknights, Reading RG6 6AA, UK.
4 The Malcolm and Carolyn Wiener Laboratory for Aegean and Near Eastern Dendrochronology, B-48 Goldwin Smith Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853-3201, USA.
5 Institut für Botanik-210, Universität Hohenheim, D-70593 Stuttgart, Germany.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: bernd.kromer{at}iup.uni-heidelberg.de

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Anatolian Tree Rings and a New Chronology for the East Mediterranean Bronze-Iron Ages.
S. W. Manning, B. Kromer, P. I. Kuniholm, and M. W. Newton (2001)
Science 294, 2532-2535
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