Radiocarbon calibration curves indicate location dependent differences in the C-14 content of wood

Full text: The C-14 chronologies currently used as calibration curves combine results from wood that grew in the western United States, the British Isles and Germany. Recent corrections to the published measurements indicate that data from these long chronologies are no longer entirely consistent, implying either the existence of interlaboratory biases, or C-14 variations in the wood from different species and/or regions. It has long been accepted that wood from the Southern Hemisphere gives radiocarbon dates that are approximately 40 years older than contemporaneous Northern Hemisphere wood. The reasons suggested for the difference are typically that the larger expanse of ocean and the slightly higher average wind speeds result in enhanced CO2 exchange with the mixed layer of the ocean. measurements presented in a companion paper (Hogg et al) explore the difference between the hemispheres, by re-measurement of a section of the Northern Hemisphere calibration dataset and wood from New Zealand. Only by making careful replicated comparisons of the C-14 content of wood from different regions, over long time scales, can we verify the presence or absence of temporal variations. In this paper we will discuss the Northern Hemisphere calibration dataset and show the importance of experimental design in determining if small, temporally varying offsets exist between regional tree-ring chronologies