Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 7 March 1986:
Vol. 231. no. 4742, pp. 1129 - 1131
DOI: 10.1126/science.231.4742.1129
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Articles

Organic Carbon-14 in the Amazon River System

JOHN I. HEDGES 1, JOHN R. ERTEL 1, PAUL D. QUAY 2, PIETER M. GROOTES 2, JEFFREY E. RICHEY 1, ALLAN H. DEVOL 1, GEORGE W. FARWELL 3, FRED W. SCHMIDT 3, and ENEAS SALATI 4

1 School of Oceanography, University of Washington, Seattle 98195.
2 Quaternary Research Center and Department of Geological Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle 98195.
3 Nuclear Physics Laboratory and Department of Physics, University of Washington, Seattle 98195.
4 Centro de Energia Nuclear na Agricultura, Caixa Postal 96, 13400 Piracicaba, São Paulo, Brazil.

Coarse and fine suspended particulate organic materials and dissolved humic and fulvic acids transported by the Amazon River all contain bomb-produced carbon-14, indicating relatively rapid turnover of the parent carbon pools. However, the carbon-14 contents of these coexisting carbon forms are measurably different and may reflect varying degrees of retention by soils in the drainage basin.

Submitted on August 19, 1985
Accepted on December 18, 1985


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Accelerator Mass Spectrometry for Measurement of Long-Lived Radioisotopes.
D. Elmore, D. ELMORE, and F. M. PHILLIPS (1987)
Science 236, 543-550
   Abstract »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)