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.     

Soil carbon isotope evidence for holocene habitat change in the kenya rift valley

In eastern Africa the altitude of the boundary between montane forest and lowland savanna grassland changed substantially in response to climate change during the later Holocene, but this is not clearly reflected in regional pollen records. The carbon-13 to carbon-12 ratios of tropical grasses are higher than those of most other plants, and this difference is preserved in soil organic carbon stable isotope ratios. Soil organic matter (13)C/(12)C ratios in profiles along an altitude transect in the central Rift Valley of Kenya suggest that the forest-savanna boundary advanced more than 300 meters in altitude. This could have implications for understanding the effects of climate change on the configuration of floral zones, prehistoric hunter-gatherer land-use patterns, and the timing of the advent of Neolithic food production.     

Hydrothermal Vent Clam and Tube Worm 13C/12C: Further Evidence of Nonphotosynthetic Food Sources

The stable carbon isotope ratios in clam mantle tissues taken from both Galápagos and 21 degrees N hydrothermal vent sites were similar to the unusually low ratios of carbon-13 to carbon-12 previously reported for a Galápagos hydrothermal vent mussel. In marked contrast to these bivalves, vestimentiferan worm tissues from a Galápagos vent had isotope ratios that were higher than those of open ocean biota. These observations suggest that more than one nonpelagic and nonphotosynthetic carbon fixation pathway is of nutritional importance to vent animals, and that at least one of these pathways is common to two geographically separated vent sites.     

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.     

A Large Northern Hemisphere Terrestrial CO2 Sink Indicated by the 13C/12C Ratio of Atmospheric CO2

Measurements of the concentrations and carbon-13/carbon-12 isotope ratios of atmospheric carbon dioxide can be used to quantify the net removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by the oceans and terrestrial plants. A study of weekly samples from a global network of 43 sites defined the latitudinal and temporal patterns of the two carbon sinks. A strong terrestrial biospheric sink was found in the temperate latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere in 1992 and 1993, the magnitude of which is roughly half that of the global fossil fuel burning emissions for those years. The challenge now is to identify those processes that would cause the terrestrial biosphere to absorb carbon dioxide in such large quantities.     

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).     

The stability of DNA in human cerebellar neurons

Human tissues have carbon-isotope ratios (13C/12C) that reflect dietary ratios. This observation has been used to determine the extent of metabolic turnover of DNA in cells of the adult human cerebellum (90 percent of which are neuronal). If adult human neuronal DNA were metabolically stable, its 13C/12C would reflect that in the maternal diet during fetal development as nearly all neurons are formed during maturation of the fetal brain and do not undergo cell division thereafter. The 13C/12C ratios in the food chains and body tissues of Europeans differ from corresponding American ratios by about 50 parts per million on the average. Therefore, turnover was studied by comparing 13C/12C ratios in cerebellar DNA of American-born Americans, European-born Americans, and European-born Europeans. The 13C/12C ratios in cerebellar DNA from European-born Americans were closer to 13C/12C ratios in cerebellar DNA from European-born Europeans than from American-born Americans, indicating that there was little or no turnover of neuronal DNA.     

Isotopic Evidence on the Early Life History of Nautilus pompilius (Linne)

The ratios of oxygen-18 to oxygen-16 and of carbon-13 to carbon-12 in the early shell and septa of two Nautilus specimens are interpreted for the early ontogeny of the animals. Changes in the carbon isotope content are tentatively correlated with the end of the embryonic period and with environmental changes. Variations in the oxygen isotope content are in part ascribed to migrations from warm to cooler water after a certain stage of development. The size of the body chamber of the young animals can be determined by comparison of the isotope contents in outer shell and septa.     

Endogenous carbon in carbonaceous meteorites

Seven carbonaceous chondrites have been analyzed for soluble organic compounds, carbonate, and residual carbon. Carbon-13/carbon-12 isotopic mneasurements on these fractions gave the following values relative to a marine carbonate standard: carbonate, +40 to +70 per mil; residual carbon, -15 to -17 per mil; soluble organic material, -17 to -27 per mil, with one value of -5.5 per mil. These values are interpreted to indicate that carbonate, residual carbon, and part of the extractable organic material are endogenous to these meteorites.     

Carbon-13/carbon-12 ratio is relatively uniform among honeys

The variability of the carbon-13/carbon-12 ratio in honeys was evaluated preliminary to use of the ratio to detect the addition of high-fructose corn syrup to honey. Eighty-four honey samples representing 34 states and including 37 floral types from 17 plant families were analyzed. The mean value of the per mil increment in carbon-13 (delta13C) for all samples is -25.2 per mil, and the coefficient of variation is 3.7 percent. This is the smallest variation yet encountered for a honey constituent or physical property. The range and magnitude of the values suggest that the floral sources are C(3) plants.     

Earthquake dating: an application of carbon-14 atom counting

Milligram-sized specimens of detrital charcoal from soil layers associated with prehistoric earthquakes on the Wasatch fault in Utah have been dated by direct atom counting of carbon-14 with a tandem Van de Graaff accelerator. The measured ratios of carbon-14 to carbon-12 correspond to ages of 7800, 8800, and 9000 years with uncertainties of +/- 600 years.     

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.     

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.     

Variations in the isotopic composition of carbon in urban atmospheric carbon dioxide

Measurement of the abundance of atmospheric carbon dioxide as an indicator of air pollution has been of very limited value because of variations in urban areas in the substantial concentration of natural carbon dioxide produced from combustion and noncombustion (natural) sources. A solution to this problem is the use of precise isotopic assay of ratios of carbon-13 to carbon-12 in atmospheric carbon dioxide. There is very little variation of carbon isotopic composition in samples taken over rural or urban areas where rapid mixing and diffusion of gaseous combustion products is possible. Significant differences in this composition in samples taken at centrally located points at street level in the lower Manhattan business district show an increase in concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide of roughly 20 percent produced primarily by automobile exhaust.     

Composition of Combustible Concretions of the Alewife, Alosa pseudoharengus

Alewives, Alosa pseudoharengus, wash ashore from Onondaga Lake, N.Y., in the form of combustible concretions in which the mnuscles are replaced by calcium salts of fatty acids. In both distribution pattern and total concentration of fatty acids the concretions differ strikingly from normal carcasses. Carbon-13: carbon-12 ratios indicate that the concretions may have formed from lipids of terrestrial or freshwater organisms or from organic pollutants of nonmarine origin, or from lipids and pollutants.     

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.     

The isotopic composition of methane in polar ice cores

Air bubbles in polar ice cores indicate that about 300 years ago the atmospheric mixing ratio of methane began to increase rapidly. Today the mixing ratio is about 1.7 parts per million by volume, and, having doubled once in the past several hundred years, it will double again in the next 60 years if current rates continue. Carbon isotope ratios in methane up to 350 years in age have been measured with as little as 25 kilograms of polar ice recovered in 4-meter-long ice-core segments. The data show that (i) in situ microbiology or chemistry has not altered the ice-core methane concentrations, and (ii) that the carbon-13 to carbon-12 ratio of atmospheric CH(4) in ice from 100 years and 300 years ago was about 2 per mil lower than at present. Atmospheric methane has a rich spectrum of isotopic sources: the ice-core data indicate that anthropogenic burning of the earth's biomass is the principal cause of the recent (13)CH(4) enrichment, although other factors may also contribute.     

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.     

Carbon fixation and isotope discrimination by a crassulacean plant: dependence on the photoperiod

Variations of more than 1 percent are observed in the carbon-13 to carbon-12 ratio of extracts of leaves of the succulent Kalanchoe blossfeldiana when the photoperiod is changed from long to short days. This indicates that the mechanism of carbon fixation switches from the Calvin (C(3)) pathway to the Hatch-Slack (C(4)) pathway of primary enzymic operation. The variations observed in the isotope compositions are tentatively explained by a model.     

Greek marbles: determination of provenance by isotopic analysis

A study has been made of carbon-13 and oxygen-18 variations in Greek marbles from the ancient quarry localities of Naxos, Paros, Mount Hymettus, and Mount Pentelikon. Parian, Hymettian, and Pentelic marbles can be clearly distinguished by the isotopic relationships; Naxian marbles fall into two groups characterized by different oxygen-18/oxygen-16 ratios. Ten archeological samples were also analyzed; the isotopic data indicate that the "Theseion" is made of Pentelic marble and a block in the Treasury of Siphnos at Delphi is probably Parian marble.