@article {3004,
	title = {Implications of Single-Step Graphitization For Reconstructing Late Holocene Relative Sea-Level Using Radiocarbon-Dated Organic Coastal Sediment},
	journal = {Radiocarbon},
	year = {2022},
	month = {08/2022},
	pages = {1 - 20},
	abstract = {Late Holocene relative sea-level reconstructions are commonly generated using proxies preserved in salt-marsh and mangrove sediment. These depositional environments provide abundant material for radiocarbon dating in the form of identifiable macrofossils (salt marshes) and bulk organic sediment (mangroves). We explore if single-step graphitization of these samples in preparation for radiocarbon dating can increase the number and temporal resolution of relative sea-level reconstructions without a corresponding increase in cost. Dating of salt-marsh macrofossils from the northeastern United States and bulk mangrove sediment from the Federated States of Micronesia indicates that single-step graphitization generates radiocarbon ages that are indistinguishable from replicates prepared using traditional graphitization, but with a modest increase in error (mean/maximum of 6.25/15 additional 14C yr for salt-marsh macrofossils). Low 12C currents measured on bulk mangrove sediment following single-step graphitization likely render them unreliable despite their apparent accuracy. Simulated chronologies for six salt-marsh cores indicate that having twice as many radiocarbon dates (since single-step graphitization costs \~{}50\% of traditional graphitization) results in narrower confidence intervals for sample age estimated by age-depth models when the additional error from the single-step method is less than \~{}50 14C yr (\~{}30 14C yr if the chronology also utilizes historical age markers). Since these thresholds are greater than our empirical estimates of the additional error, we conclude that adopting single-step graphitization for radiocarbon measurements on plant macrofossils is likely to increase precision of age-depth models by more than 20/10\% (without/with historical age markers). This improvement can be implemented without additional cost.},
	keywords = {age-depth model, mangrove, Massachusetts, Micronesia, Salt marsh},
	isbn = {0033-8222, 1945-5755},
	doi = {10.1017/RDC.2022.55},
	url = {https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/radiocarbon/article/implications-of-singlestep-graphitization-for-reconstructing-late-holocene-relative-sealevel-using-radiocarbondated-organic-coastal-sediment/41F75E6A0679F0E659C96F438452D64C},
	author = {Sefton, Juliet P. and Kemp, Andrew C. and Elder, Kathryn L. and Hansman, Roberta L. and Roberts, Mark L.}
}
