TY - JOUR T1 - Radiocarbon dating of individual fatty acids as a tool for refining Antarctic margin sediment chronologies JF - Radiocarbon Y1 - 2003 A1 - Ohkouchi, N. A1 - Eglinton, T. I. A1 - Hayes, J. M. KW - carbon KW - ice-sheet KW - marine-sediments KW - north-atlantic KW - organic-matter KW - ross-sea KW - southern-ocean AB - We have measured the radiocarbon contents of individual, solvent-extractable, short-chain (C-14, C-16, and C-18) fatty acids isolated from Ross Sea surface sediments. The corresponding C-14 ages are equivalent to that of the post-bomb dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) reservoir. Moreover, molecular C-14 variations in surficial (upper 15 cm) sediments indicate that these compounds may prove useful for reconstructing chronologies of Antarctic margin sediments containing uncertain (and potentially variable) quantities of relict organic carbon. A preliminary molecular C-14 chronology suggests that the accumulation rate of relict organic matter has not changed during the last 500 C-14 yr. The focus of this study is to determine the validity of compound-specific C-14 analysis as a technique for reconstructing chronologies of Antarctic margin sediments. VL - 45 SN - 0033-8222 IS - 1 N1 - 735tqTimes Cited:25 Cited References Count:29 JO - Radiocarbon ER -