Atmospheric transfer of carbon-14: a problem in fungus translocation studies

The carbon-14-labeled carbon dioxide that is released by respiration after glucose labeled with carbon-14 is applied to fungal mycelium can be reabsorbed in highly significant amounts by distant mycelium and agar media in the same petri dishes. Atmospheric transfer of carbon-14 must be considered when using labeled organic compounds to study translocation in fungi.     

Banded corals: changes in oceanic carbon-14 during the little ice age

Radiocarbon analyses and stable isotope measurements are presented foro recent cores of banded corals from the Florida Straits. These values provide a record of variations in the ratio of carbon-14 to carbon-12 in the dissolved inorganic carbon in the surface waters of the Gulf Stream from A.D. 1642 to 1800. An increase in the carbon-14/carbon-12 ratio of 7 per mil for coral growth during the early 1700's was most likely induced by an increase in the carbon-14/carbon-12 ratio of 20 per mil in the atmospheric carbon dioxide that occurred at about 1700. The ratios of oxygen 18 to oxygen-16 in these coral bands show a small decrease of a water temperature ( approximately 1 degrees C) during the latter part of the Little Ice Age (1700 to 1725). These results support the hypothesis that the increase in atmospheric carbon-14 at about 1700, and possibly the temperature change as well, was caused by a decrease in solar activity (Maunder sunspot minimum).     

Radiocarbon Dating: Fictitious Results with Mollusk Shells

Evidence is presented to show that modern mollusk shells from rivers can have anomalous radiocarbon ages, owing mainly to incorporation of inactive (carbon-14-deficient) carbon from humus, probably through the food web, as well as by the pathway of carbon dioxide from humus decay. The resultant effect, in addition to the variable contributions of atmospheric carbon dioxide, fermentative carbon dioxide from bottom muds, and, locally, of carbonate carbon from dissolving limestones, makes the initial carbon-14-activity of ancient fresh-water shell indeterminate, but within limits. Consequent errors of shell radiocarbon dates may be as large as several thousand years for river shells.     

Oxidation of graphitic carbon in certain soils

Artificial graphitic carbon-14 was oxidized to carbon-14 dioxide in the presence of certain nonsterile soils. Treatment of these soils for the inhibition of biologic activity, by several methods including 5 megarads of electron-beam irradiation, yielded much-less-reactive systems in the oxidation of carbon. Intervention of a biologic agent in some of these oxidative processes is suggested.     

Carbon-13 and carbon-14 abundances in alaskan aquatic organisms: delayed production from peat in arctic food webs

Inputs of terrestrial peat carbon to the nearshore Alaskan Beaufort Sea from erosion and fluvial transport are of the same magnitude as in situ primary production within 10 kilometers of shore. Nevertheless, carbon-13/carbon-12 ratios and carbon-14 abundances in marine organisms show that only small amounts of the terrestrial carbon are transferred beyond the microbial level. Freshwater organisms, however, are heavily dependent on peat, as shown by pronounced seasonal radiocarbon depressions in resident fish and ducks. Tundra ponds and lakes are areas where accumulated terrestrial peat carbon is apparently transferred to aquatic insect larvae and passed on to higher organisms. The lack of functionally analogous abundant marine prey organisms may explain why peat carbon is not efficiently transferred to apical food web species in the marine environment.     

14C-dead living biomass: evidence for microbial assimilation of ancient organic carbon during shale weathering

Prokaryotes have been cultured from a modern weathering profile developed on a approximately 365-million-year-old black shale that use macromolecular shale organic matter as their sole organic carbon source. Using natural-abundance carbon-14 analysis of membrane lipids, we show that 74 to 94% of lipid carbon in these cultures derives from assimilation of carbon-14-free organic carbon from the shale. These results reveal that microorganisms enriched from shale weathering profiles are able to use a macromolecular and putatively refractory pool of ancient organic matter. This activity may facilitate the oxidation of sedimentary organic matter to inorganic carbon when sedimentary rocks are exposed by erosion. Thus, microorganisms may play a more active role in the geochemical carbon cycle than previously recognized, with profound implications for controls on the abundance of oxygen and carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere over geologic time.     

Carbon-14 in methane sources and in atmospheric methane: the contribution from fossil carbon

Measurements of carbon-14 in small samples of methane from major biogenic sources, from biomass burning, and in "clean air" samples from both the Northern and Southern hemispheres reveal that methane from ruminants contains contemporary carbon, whereas that from wetlands, pat bogs, rice fields, and tundra is somewhat, depleted in carbon-14. Atmospheric (14)GH(4) seems to have increased from 1986 to 1987, and levels at the end of 1987 were 123.3 +/- 0.8 percent modern carbon (pMC) in the Northern Hemisphere and 120.0 +/- 0.7 pMC in the Southern Hemisphere. Model calculations of source partitioning based on the carbon-14 data, CH(4) concentrations, and delta(13)C in CH(4) indicate that 21 +/- 3% of atmospheric CH(4) was derived from fossil carbon at the end of 1987. The data also indicate that pressurized water reactors are an increasingly important source of (14)CH(4).     

Bacterioplankton: a sink for carbon in a coastal marine plankton community

Recent determinations of high production rates (up to 30 percent of primary production in surface waters) implicate free-living marine bacterioplankton as a link in a "microbial loop" that supplements phytoplankton as food for herbivores. An enclosed water column of 300 cubic meters was used to test the microbial loop hypothesis by following the fate of carbon-14-labeled bacterioplankton for over 50 days. Only 2 percent of the label initially fixed from carbon-14-labeled glucose by bacteria was present in larger organisms after 13 days, at which time about 20 percent of the total label added remained in the particulate fraction. Most of the label appeared to pass directly from particles smaller than 1 micrometer (heterotrophic bacterioplankton and some bacteriovores) to respired labeled carbon dioxide or to regenerated dissolved organic carbon-14. Secondary (and, by implication, primary) production by organisms smaller than 1 micrometer may not be an important food source in marine food chains. Bacterioplankton can be a sink for carbon in planktonic food webs and may serve principally as agents of nutrient regeneration rather than as food.     

Carbon-14 milk constituents from cows fed carbamate labeled with carbon-14 on the carbonyl

Oral administration to a dairy cow of Furadan insecticide (2,2-dimethyl-2,3-dihydro-7-benzofuranyl N-methylcarbamate) labeled with carbon-14 on the carbonyl produced in the milk certain radioactive materials which were not Furadan metabolites. The data suggest that these products were natural milk constituents containing only the carbon-14 atom from the Furadan molecule. Carbon-14-labeled carbon dioxide formed by the hydrolysis of the carbamate insecticide is the apparent precursor of these radiolabeled constituents of the milk.     

Radioisotope dating with an accelerator: a blind measurement

The age of a sample of carbon dioxide has been determined by accelerating the carbon with a cyclotron and detecting the carbon-14 ions in the beam. Nitrogen-14 was eliminated as a background through the use of a range-separation technique. To avoid all possibility of experimenter bias, the measurement was conducted in a blind fashion.     

Rapid turnover of hyphae of mycorrhizal fungi determined by AMS microanalysis of 14C

Processes in the soil remain among the least well-characterized components of the carbon cycle. Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi are ubiquitous root symbionts in many terrestrial ecosystems and account for a large fraction of photosynthate in a wide range of ecosystems; they therefore play a key role in the terrestrial carbon cycle. A large part of the fungal mycelium is outside the root (the extraradical mycelium, ERM) and, because of the dispersed growth pattern and the small diameter of the hyphae (<5 micrometers), exceptionally difficult to study quantitatively. Critically, the longevity of these fine hyphae has never been measured, although it is assumed to be short. To quantify carbon turnover in these hyphae, we exposed mycorrhizal plants to fossil ("carbon-14-dead") carbon dioxide and collected samples of ERM hyphae (up to 116 micrograms) over the following 29 days. Analyses of their carbon-14 content by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) showed that most ERM hyphae of AM fungi live, on average, 5 to 6 days. This high turnover rate reveals a large and rapid mycorrhizal pathway of carbon in the soil carbon cycle.     

Possible surface reactions on Mars: implications for viking biology results

The results of two of the three biology experiments carried out on the Viking Mars landers have been simulated. The mixture of organic compounds labeled with carbon-14 used on Mars released carbon dioxide containing carbon-14 when reacted with a simulated martian surface and atmosphere exposed to ultraviolet light (labeled release experiment). Oxygen was released when metal peroxides or superoxides were treated with water (gas exchange experiment). The simulations suggest that the results of these two Viking experiments can be explained on the basis of reactions of the martian surface and atmosphere.     

Proposed system of terminology for preparations of adrenocorticotropic hormone

The isolation and characterization of gelatin from 12,000-year-old deer antlers is described. Use of gelatin from ancient bones for carbon-14 dating may improve the accuracy of the dating procedure because gelatin is not likely to be contaminated by extraneous carbon.     

Interstellar carbon in meteorites

The Murchison and Allende chondrites contain up to 5 parts per million carbon that is enriched in carbon-13 by up to + 1100 per mil (the ratio of carbon-12 to carbon-13 is approximately 42, compared to 88 to 93 for terrestrial carbon). This "heavy" carbon is associated with neon-22 and with anomalous krypton and xenon showing the signature of the s-process (neutron capture on a slow time scale). It apparently represents interstellar grains ejected from late-type stars. A second anomalous xenon component ("CCFXe") is associated with a distinctive, light carbon (depleted in carbon-13 by 38 per mil), which, however, falls within the terrestrial range and hence may be of either local or exotic origin.     

Anomalous carbon-isotope ratios in nonvolatile organic material

Organic mats are associated with sulfur deposits in Upper Pleistocene sand ridges of the coastal plain of southern Israel; black, brittle, and non-volatile, they show parallel layering but no other apparent cellular structure. Two independent carbon-14 determinations yielded ages of 27,750+/-500 and 31,370+/-1400 years. Four carbon-13:carbon-12 determinations fell within the range deltaC(13) =-82.5 to -89.3 per mille relative to the PDB standard; these appear to be the lowest values yet reported for naturally occurring high-molecular-weight organic material. The origin of the carbon is probably complex; it must have passed through at least one biologic cycle before final deposition.     

Glucose naturally labeled with carbon-13: use for metabolic studies in man

The ratio of carbon-13 to carbon-12 is much higher in most commerical preparations of glucose used for oral glucose tolerance tests than it is in carbon dioxide in expired air. This recent discovery provided a novel and potentially significant means of studying glucose metabolism. The changes in the ratio of carbon-13 to carbon-12 in carbon dioxide expired after oral glucose administration were determined by mass spectrometry. In six healthy male volunteers, the administration of glucose resulted in a marked, reproducible rise in the isotopic ratio in expired carbon dioxide; the ratio reached its maximum at 4 hours and then declined progressively.     

Carbon-14 dating of small samples by proportional counting

Conventional carbon-14 dating by means of gas proportional counters has been extended to samples containing as little as 10 milligrams of carbon. The accuracy of the dating procedure has been checked by dating sequoia tree-ring samples of the 1st century A.D. and B.C. and an oak tree-ring sample of the 19th century A.D.     

Middle holocene age of the sunnyvale human skeleton

A morphologically modern human skeleton from Sunnyvale, California, previously dated by aspartic acid racemization to be approximately 70,000 years old and by uranium series isotopic ratios to be 8300 and 9000 years old, appears to be younger when dated by the carbon-14 method. Four carbon-14 determinations made by both decay and direct counting on three organic fractions of postcranial bone support a middle Holocene age assignment for the skeleton, probably in the range of 3500 to 5000 carbon-14 years before the present. This dating evidence is consistent with the geologic, archeological, and anthropometric relationships of the burial as well as previously determined carbon-14 determinations on associated materials.     

Man-made carbon-14 in deep Pacific waters: transport by biological skeletal material

Calcareous particles present in Pacific waters at depths of 50 to 3500 meters were collected by filtering seawater through spongin matrix. The specific activity of carbon-14 could be measured in two of these collections from depths of 2300 and 3500 meters. The ratios of carbon-14 to carbon-12 correspond to values observed in surface waters in recent years as a result of the addition of manmade carbon-14, thus indicating that the calcareous particles resulted from recent biological productivity. The results are related to the mean settling rates and the sizes and dissolution rates of biogenic calcareous particles in transit through a seawater column.     

碳-14考古断代原理

放射性元素碳 - 1 4的半衰期为 5 730年。自然界中活着的生物体中碳 - 1 4含量应为定值 ,生物死亡之后 ,碳 - 1 4含量按一定规律衰减。考古学家根据死亡后生物体内碳 - 1 4含量相对于其原始量的变化来断定它所属年代。