Local Radiocarbon Reservoir Age (Delta-R) Variability from the Nearshore and Open-Ocean Environments of the Florida Keys Reef Tract During the Holocene and Associated U-Series and Radiocarbon Data

Holocene-aged corals from reef cores collected throughout the Florida Keys reef tract (FKRT; Fig. 1) were dated using a combination of U-series and radiocarbon techniques to quantify the millennial-scale variability in the local radiocarbon reservoir age (delta-R) of the shallow water environments of south Florida. delta-R provides a measure of the deviation of local radiocarbon concentrations of marine environments from the global average and can be used as a tracer of oceanic circulation and local hydrology. We combined our coral-based estimates of delta-R using statistical modelling to reconstruct millennial-scale variability in delta-R at locations on the FKRT with (nearshore) and without (open ocean) terrestrial influence. We also used the models to provide temporally-explicit estimates of delta-R that can be used in radiocarbon calibrations of marine samples from the region. In v.1.0, the coral-based estimates of delta-R were derived using data from the Marine13 radiocarbon calibration curve (Reimer and others, 2013). In v.2.0, the delta-R estimates were instead derived using the Marine20 radiocarbon calibration curve (Heaton and others, 2020). For further information regarding data collection and analysis methods refer to Toth et al. (2017).

Toth, L.T., Cheng,H., Edwards, R.L., Ashe, E., and Richey, J.N., 2017, Millennial-scale variability in the local radiocarbon reservoir age of south Florida during the Holocene: Quaternary Geochronology, v. 42, p. 130-143, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quageo.2017.07.005.

Note: This data release was versioned on August 30, 2021. Please see the Suggested Citation section for details.