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Age and Growth Rate Dynamics of an Old African Baobab Determined by Radiocarbon Dating

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Adrian Patrut ,
Diana H Mayne ,
Karl F von Reden ,
Daniel A Lowy ,
Sarah Venter ,
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
Sarah Venter
Affiliation:
Restoration and Conservation Biology Research Group, School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, PO WITS 2050, Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa
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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In 2008, a large African baobab (Adansonia digitata L.) from Makulu Makete, South Africa, split vertically into 2 sections, revealing a large enclosed cavity. Several wood samples collected from the cavity were processed and radiocarbon dated by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) for determining the age and growth rate dynamics of the tree. The 14C date of the oldest sample was found to be of 1016 ± 22 BP, which corresponds to a calibrated age of 1000 ± 15 yr. Thus, the Makulu Makete tree, which eventually collapsed to the ground and died, becomes the second oldest African baobab dated accurately to at least 1000 yr. The conventional growth rate of the trunk, estimated by the radial increase, declined gradually over its life cycle. However, the growth rate expressed more adequately by the cross-sectional area increase and by the volume increase accelerated up to the age of 650 yr and remained almost constant over the past 450 yr.

Type
Methods, Applications, and Developments
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 52 , Issue 2: 20th Int. Radiocarbon Conference Proceedings , 2010 , pp. 727 - 734
Copyright
Copyright © 2010 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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