87Sr/86Sr as a quantitative geochemical proxy for 14C reservoir age in dynamic, brackish waters: Assessing applicability and quantifying uncertainties

Abstract

Accurate geochronologies are crucial for reconstructing the sensitivity of brackish and estuarine environments to dynamic external impacts of the past. Radiocarbon (14C) dating is commonly used for palaeoclimate studies, but its application in brackish environments is severely limited by an inability to quantify spatiotemporal variations in 14C reservoir age, or R(t), due to dynamic interplay between river runoff and marine water. Additionally, old carbon effects and species-specific behavioral processes also influence 14C ages. Using the world's largest brackish water body (the estuarine Baltic Sea) as a test bed, combined with a comprehensive approach that objectively excludes both old carbon (using GIS) and species-specific 14C effects, we demonstrate the use of 87Sr/86Sr ratios for quantifying R(t) in ubiquitous mollusc shell material, leading to almost an order of magnitude increase in Baltic Sea 14C geochronological precision over the current state of the art. We propose that similar proxy methods can be developed for other brackish water bodies worldwide.