Lacustrine environments (¹⁴c)

Advances in AMS sample preparation and measurement and Bayesian modeling software enable construction of robust, relatively high-precision and high-accuracy radiocarbon age models to support the high-resolution, multi-proxy lake records that have proliferated recently. Fundamentally, radiocarbon chronologies require an investment in a sufficient number of ages to support the time resolution of the proxy-record interpretations. Furthermore, they must include acknowledgment of the geological uncertainties inherent to all sample types. While identifiable terrestrial macrofossils remain the preferred material for radiocarbon dating, reliable age models can be based on other materials, where careful consideration of pre-and post-depositional effects on the carbon is combined with application of as many chronological techniques as possible.