Annual radiocarbon measurements in a century-old European beech tree (Fagus sylvatica) from coastal northeastern North America

Radiocarbon (C-14) concentrations of annual tree rings from an European beech tree (Fagus sylvatica) from Woods Hole, MA, USA were analyzed at National Ocean Sciences Accelerator Mass Spectrometry facility (NOSAMS) to construct a C-14 bomb curve record from northeastern North America. The C-14 concentration rises from a pre bomb (1895-1955) average of Fraction Modern ((FC)-C-14) = 0.9764 to a peak of 1.8639 in 1964. After 1964, (FC)-C-14 gradually decreases to 1.0611 in 2014. The annual tree-ring radiocarbon content agrees with the atmospheric radiocarbon content of the Northern Hemisphere and is very similar to the radiocarbon concentration of a red oak (Quercus rubra) tree located in Bear Mountain State Park in New York, USA. Infra-annual tree-ring pairs did not produce evidence of a seasonal effect on the radiocarbon concentration, but there were few samples and more study is warranted.