Potential Sources of Error and Uncertainty in Radiocarbon Dates from North American Sites

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dc.contributor.authorJenna Kisilevich
dc.contributor.authorDr. Andria Dawson
dc.date.accessioned2025-05-01T22:15:17Z
dc.date.available2025-05-01T22:15:17Z
dc.date.issued2021-08-01
dc.descriptionRadiocarbon dating — the process of finding the age of a material by using the radioactive isotope carbon-14 — is an important tool in observing and inferring past ecological events and changes. However, it is not without its uncertainties. While contamination and poor treatment in the lab can lead to larger errors, so can mechanisms which convert the radiocarbon age produced by the dating process into a calendar age for scientists to use accordingly. There are more correlations between uncertainty and other factors — such as age and depth — which we will discuss in this paper. In addition, we are using fossil pollen sediment core data from the Neotoma Paleoecology Database. Many of the fossil pollen sediment cores taken were from lakes all over North America. Not only did we use the sediment core radiocarbon data, but we also used the longitude and latitude of the sites to map the area of their respective lakes using Google Earth Pro. We then classified the lakes as being small, medium, or large, according to a framework used in this paper. The dating process, along with the lake areas, gives us an idea of when an ecological event occurred using the radiocarbon date produced and whether the change was a local or a regional event using the area of the lake. By connecting these two parts, we gain a clearer sense of when and where an ecological occurrence happened. Also, by knowing the sizes of lakes, we can evaluate the scale of ecological change through space and time. Therefore, ecological change can be better understood, which would ultimately lead to improved predictions of past changes in different ecosystems across North America
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.7939/r3-c99d-gr78
dc.language.isoen
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
dc.subjectWISEST
dc.subjectSTEM
dc.subjectSRP
dc.subjectScience
dc.subjectBiological Sciences
dc.subjectRadiocarbon dating
dc.subjectcarbon-14
dc.subjectfossil pollen sediment
dc.subjectNorth America
dc.subjectGoogle Earth Pro
dc.subjectecological change
dc.titlePotential Sources of Error and Uncertainty in Radiocarbon Dates from North American Sites
dc.typehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6670
ual.jupiterAccesshttp://terms.library.ualberta.ca/public

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