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Fire History of a Giant African Baobab Evinced by Radiocarbon Dating

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Adrian Patrut ,
Diana H Mayne ,
Karl F von Reden ,
Daniel A Lowy ,
Robert van Pelt ,
Ann P McNichol ,
Mark L Roberts  and
Dragos Margineanu
Adrian Patrut*
Affiliation:
Department of Chemistry, Babes-Bolyai University, Arany Janos 11, 400028 Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Diana H Mayne
Affiliation:
Baobab Trust, Box 1566, Parklands 2121, Johannesburg, South Africa
Karl F von Reden*
Affiliation:
NOSAMS Facility, Department of Geology & Geophysics, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 360 Woods Hole Rd., Mailstop 8, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543, USA
Daniel A Lowy
Affiliation:
FlexEl, LLC, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA
Robert van Pelt
Affiliation:
College of Forest Resources, Box 352100, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA
Dragos Margineanu
Affiliation:
Department of Chemistry, Babes-Bolyai University, Arany Janos 11, 400028 Cluj-Napoca, Romania
*
Corresponding author. Email: apatrut@gmail.com
Corresponding author. Email: kvonreden@whoi.edu
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Abstract

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The article reports the first radiocarbon dating of a live African baobab (Adansonia digitata L.), by investigating wood samples collected from 2 inner cavities of the very large 2-stemmed Platland tree of South Africa. Some 16 segments extracted from determined positions of the samples, which correspond to a depth of up to 15–20 cm in the wood, were processed and analyzed by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS). Calibrated ages of segments are not correlated with their positions in the stems of the tree. Dating results indicate that the segments originate from new growth layers, with a thickness of several centimeters, which cover the original old wood. Four new growth layers were dated before the reference year AD 1950 and 2 layers were dated post-AD 1950, in the post-bomb period. Formation of these layers was triggered by major damage inside the cavities. Fire episodes are the only possible explanation for such successive major wounds over large areas or over the entire area of the inner cavities of the Platland tree, able to trigger regrowth.

Type
Methods, Applications, and Developments
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 52 , Issue 2: 20th Int. Radiocarbon Conference Proceedings , 2010 , pp. 717 - 726
Copyright
Copyright © 2010 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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