AMS 14C dating of tundra lake sediments using chironomid head capsules

Radiocarbon dating of late-Quaternary sediments from high-latitude lakes is often complicated by the influx of old carbon, reservoir effects, or both. If terrestrial plant macrofossils are also absent, the dating of bulk sediment often provides the only means to establish chronologies for these problematic sediment sequences. Given that chironomid (non-biting midge) remains are sufficiently abundant in many northern lakes to be ¹⁴C-dated via the accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) method, we decided to explore their utility in age-model development. Five age determinations based on chironomid material were obtained from a lake sediment core sampled in the shrub tundra of northern Québec. These results were compared to six AMS bulk sediment ages, as well as to a date obtained from Drepanocladus spp. The chironomids yielded consistently younger ages (with increasing age offset upcore), confirming both the presence of a reservoir effect and the value of chironomids in establishing more reliable ¹⁴C chronologies.