Vesicular-arbuscular mycorrizae for dating multiple paleosols and carbon loss rate determination

A promising technique for dating paleosols is reported based on radiocarbon (C-14) dating of asexual spores from vesicular-arbuscular mycorrizae (VAM). The soils are dispersed in water and some 6000-8000 spores separated by hand picking under a low power microscope. The dried spores are then dated b...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geoderma
Main Authors: Holmqvist, Johan, Schlyter, P
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2000
Subjects:
Chemical Engineering
degradation
organic carbon
paleosols
radiocarbon dating
soil
Arctic
Northern Sweden
Online Access:https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/3917392
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0016-7061(00)00030-6
Description
Summary:A promising technique for dating paleosols is reported based on radiocarbon (C-14) dating of asexual spores from vesicular-arbuscular mycorrizae (VAM). The soils are dispersed in water and some 6000-8000 spores separated by hand picking under a low power microscope. The dried spores are then dated by accelerator mass spectroscopy (AMS). A chronosequense of closely superimposed paleosols from an arctic/alpine meadow soil, northern Sweden, was dated and the long-term (i.e., over a millennium time-span) organic carbon loss rate determined. A very low carbon loss rate was obtained, 4.7 x 10(-4) +/- 9.2 x 10(-5) year(-1). It is argued that this approach is likely to give a better estimate for long-term loss than litter-bag studies covering a couple of decades. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

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