Radiocarbon content of pre-bomb marine mollusks and variations in the14C reservoir age for coastal areas of the Barents and Kara seas, Russia

Abstract

Fourteen mollusks, collected alive between 1900 and 1945 from the Russian Barents and Kara seas, were analyzed by AMS 14C dating to evaluate variations in the 14C marine reservoir for arctic coastal sites, which is important for correcting ages in paleoenvironmental time-series and advancing understanding of the exchange of carbon. The 14C ages on the mollusks reveal a range of marine reservoir values (R(t)) from 159 14C yr to 764 14C yr. The oldest R(t) values of 764 to 620 14C yr are for the bivalve Portlandia arctica. which often inhabit cold and low salinity waters and muddy substrates. The depleted 14C content for this bivalve reflects possibly the incorporation of old carbon from freshwater inputs and/or the consumption of old organic matter from the underlying sediments and pore waters. Other mollusks with sessile habitats and pelagic food sources gave significantly lower R(t) values between 159 and 344 14C yr. The youngest R(t) values indicate enrichment in 14C and may partially reflect enhanced transfer of 14C-enriched CO2 from the atmosphere to the ocean surface with wind-generated wave agitation. This study underscores that a variety of processes can lead to variable 14C depletion and enrichment of surface waters yielding a ca. 600 year age span for contemporaneous arctic mollusks. There may be added uncertainty in the 14C reservoir correction for deposit-feeder species such as Portlandia sp. and perhaps for certain benthic foraminifera (e.g. Nonion labradoricum) because these taxa often incorporate old organic matter from the substrate. A reservoir correction of 2:700 years may be more appropriate for infaunal, deposit-eater species, particularly in glacier-dominated environments. Mollusks and foraminifera with sessile habits and pelagic food sources should be selected preferentially for 14C dating, because their shells may more closely reflect the 14C content of the global-ocean mixed layer. Copyright 1997 by the American Geophysical Union.