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Multi-Substrate Radiocarbon Data Constrain Detrital and Reservoir Effects in Holocene Sediments of the Great Salt Lake, Utah

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 June 2019

Gabriel J Bowen Open the ORCID record for Gabriel J Bowen [Opens in a new window] ,
Kristine E Nielson  and
Timothy I Eglinton
Gabriel J Bowen*
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Geophysics and Global Change and Sustainability Center, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences; Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
Kristine E Nielson
Affiliation:
Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences; Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA Department of Earth Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, 5005, Australia
Timothy I Eglinton
Affiliation:
Geologisches Institut, ETH Zürich, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland Department of Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Email: gabe.bowen@utah.edu.
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Abstract

The radiocarbon (14C) content of simultaneously deposited substrates in lacustrine archives may differ due to reservoir and detrital effects, complicating the development of age models and interpretation of proxy records. Multi-substrate 14C studies quantifying these effects remain rare, however, particularly for large, terminal lake systems, which are excellent recorders of regional hydroclimate change. We report 14C ages of carbonates, brine shrimp cysts, algal mat biomass, total organic carbon (TOC), terrestrial macrofossils, and n-alkane biomarkers from Holocene sediments of the Great Salt Lake (GSL), Utah. 14C ages for co-deposited aquatic organic substrates are generally consistent, with small offsets that may reflect variable terrestrial organic matter inputs to the system. Carbonates and long-chain n-alkanes derived from vascular plants, however, are ∼1000–4000 14C years older than other substrates, reflecting deposition of pre-aged detrital materials. All lacustrine substrates are 14C-depleted compared to terrestrial macrofossils, suggesting that the reservoir age of the GSL was > 1200 years throughout most of the Holocene, far greater than the modern reservoir age of the lake (∼300 years). These results suggest good potential for multi-substrate paleoenvironmental reconstruction from Holocene GSL sediments but point to limitations including reservoir-induced uncertainty in 14C chronologies and attenuation and time-shifting of some proxy signals due to detrital effects.

Keywords

chronologypaleolakessediments
Type
Research Article
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 61 , Issue 4 , August 2019 , pp. 905 - 926
Copyright
© 2019 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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