Radiocarbon dating
The AMS radiocarbon dating is a radiometric dating application, based on the radioactive decay of 14C-nuclides. Carbon-based components are analyzed to perform a precise age determination of limnic sediments. These components of the heterogeneous sediments were formed shortly before the sedimentation. Beside macroscopic plant-remains (leafs, seeds, wood or charcoal) terrestrial microfossils (pollen) are suitable for AMS dating.
In our research group sediment samples are treated with different chemical and mechanical separation techniques to generate pure pollen concentrates. Here the focus lies on pollen separation performed using flow cytometry at the Institute of experimental Immunology (University of Bonn). Thereby particles can be characterized based on fluorescence signals and can be sorted afterwards. Age estimations of the sorted pollen concentrates and isolated plant remains are performed in cooperation with specialized laboratories (e.g., ETH Zurich, University of Cologne).
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