title: Test of AMS 14C dating of pollen concentrates using tephrochronology

authors: Newnham, Rewi M.

subjects: AMS radiocarbon dating

abstract: Previous attempts to radiocarbon date sediments >10 kyr from the high rainfall region of Westland, New Zealand, a critical location for investigation of interhemispheric patterns of climate change, have been problematic. This study, building on recent work by Vandergoes and Prior (2003), shows that AMS 14C dating of pollen concentrates has potential to provide more reliable ages than other sediment constituents, including plant macrofossils. The method was applied to sediments from three sites containing the 22.6k 14C yr Kawakawa Tephra, which provided an independent test of the 14C ages. Although some minor laboratory contamination was detected in tests on background standards, the modelled relationship between sample mass and measured 14C content permitted an appropriate correction to be determined. Improved pollen concentrations derived by density separation between 1.4 and 1.2 specific gravity and sieving in the range 10-50  m provided either older ages than other fractions of the same sample or, where in situ contamination was not evident, equivalent ages. Differences in degree of in situ contamination between depositional environments indicated that, in Westland, lake sites may be less susceptible to contamination by younger carbon than peat sites, where this process may be facilitated by root penetration into underlying sediments.

text: Test of AMS 14C dating of pollen concentrates using tephrochronology Previous attempts to radiocarbon date sediments >10 kyr from the high rainfall region of Westland, New Zealand, a critical location for investigation of interhemispheric patterns of climate change, have been problematic. This study, building on recent work by Vandergoes and Prior (2003), shows that AMS 14C dating of pollen concentrates has potential to provide more reliable ages than other sediment constituents, including plant macrofossils. The method was applied to sediments from three sites containing the 22.6k 14C yr Kawakawa Tephra, which provided an independent test of the 14C ages. Although some minor laboratory contamination was detected in tests on background standards, the modelled relationship between sample mass and measured 14C content permitted an appropriate correction to be determined. Improved pollen concentrations derived by density separation between 1.4 and 1.2 specific gravity and sieving in the range 10-50  m provided either older ages than other fractions of the same sample or, where in situ contamination was not evident, equivalent ages. Differences in degree of in situ contamination between depositional environments indicated that, in Westland, lake sites may be less susceptible to contamination by younger carbon than peat sites, where this process may be facilitated by root penetration into underlying sediments.

year: 2007-01

title: Construction of Good Rank-1 Lattice Rules Based on the Weighted Star Discrepancy

authors: Joe, Stephen

subjects: mathematics

abstract: The ‘goodness’ of a set of quadrature points in [0, 1]d may be measured by the weighted star discrepancy. If the weights for the weighted star discrepancy are summable, then we show that for n prime there exist n-point rank-1 lattice rules whose weighted star discrepancy is O(n−1+δ) for any δ>0, where the implied constant depends on δ and the weights, but is independent of d and n. Further, we show that the generating vector z for such lattice rules may be obtained using a component-by-component construction. The results given here for the weighted star discrepancy are used to derive corresponding results for a weighted Lp discrepancy.

text: Construction of Good Rank-1 Lattice Rules Based on the Weighted Star Discrepancy The ‘goodness’ of a set of quadrature points in [0, 1]d may be measured by the weighted star discrepancy. If the weights for the weighted star discrepancy are summable, then we show that for n prime there exist n-point rank-1 lattice rules whose weighted star discrepancy is O(n−1+δ) for any δ>0, where the implied constant depends on δ and the weights, but is independent of d and n. Further, we show that the generating vector z for such lattice rules may be obtained using a component-by-component construction. The results given here for the weighted star discrepancy are used to derive corresponding results for a weighted Lp discrepancy.

year: 2006

title: Two-step human−environmental impact history for northern New Zealand linked to late-Holocene climate change

authors: Newnham, Rewi M.

subjects: New Zealand

abstract: Following resolution of a long-standing debate over the timing of the initial settlement of New Zealand from Polynesia (late 13th century), a prevailing paradigm has developed that invokes rapid transformation of the landscape, principally by fire, within a few decades of the first arrivals. This model has been constructed from evidence mostly from southern and eastern regions of New Zealand, but a more complicated pattern may apply in the more humid western and northern regions where forests are more resilient to burning. We present a new pollen record from Lake Pupuke, Auckland, northern New Zealand, that charts the changing vegetation cover over the last 1000 years, before and after the arrival of people. Previous results from this site concurred with the rapid transformation model, although sampling resolution, chronology and sediment disturbance make that interpretation equivocal. Our new record is dated principally by tephrochronology together with radiocarbon dating, and includes a cryptotephra deposit identified as Kaharoa tephra, a key marker for first settlement in northern New Zealand. Its discovery and stratigraphic position below two Rangitoto-derived tephras enables a clearer picture of environmental change to be drawn. The new pollen record shows an early phase (step 1) of minor, localised forest clearance around the time of Kaharoa tephra (c. 1314 AD) followed by a later, more extensive deforestation phase (step 2) commencing at around the time of deposition of the Rangitoto tephras (c. 1400‒1450 AD). This pattern, which needs to be corroborated from other well-resolved records from northern New Zealand, concurs with an emerging hypothesis that the ‘Little Ice Age’ had a significant impact on pre-European Māori with the onset of harsher conditions causing a consolidation of populations and later environmental impact in northern New Zealand.

text: Two-step human−environmental impact history for northern New Zealand linked to late-Holocene climate change Following resolution of a long-standing debate over the timing of the initial settlement of New Zealand from Polynesia (late 13th century), a prevailing paradigm has developed that invokes rapid transformation of the landscape, principally by fire, within a few decades of the first arrivals. This model has been constructed from evidence mostly from southern and eastern regions of New Zealand, but a more complicated pattern may apply in the more humid western and northern regions where forests are more resilient to burning. We present a new pollen record from Lake Pupuke, Auckland, northern New Zealand, that charts the changing vegetation cover over the last 1000 years, before and after the arrival of people. Previous results from this site concurred with the rapid transformation model, although sampling resolution, chronology and sediment disturbance make that interpretation equivocal. Our new record is dated principally by tephrochronology together with radiocarbon dating, and includes a cryptotephra deposit identified as Kaharoa tephra, a key marker for first settlement in northern New Zealand. Its discovery and stratigraphic position below two Rangitoto-derived tephras enables a clearer picture of environmental change to be drawn. The new pollen record shows an early phase (step 1) of minor, localised forest clearance around the time of Kaharoa tephra (c. 1314 AD) followed by a later, more extensive deforestation phase (step 2) commencing at around the time of deposition of the Rangitoto tephras (c. 1400‒1450 AD). This pattern, which needs to be corroborated from other well-resolved records from northern New Zealand, concurs with an emerging hypothesis that the ‘Little Ice Age’ had a significant impact on pre-European Māori with the onset of harsher conditions causing a consolidation of populations and later environmental impact in northern New Zealand.

year: 2018