14C AMS measurements in tree rings to estimate local fossil CO2 in Bosco Fontana forest (Mantova, Italy)

Manuela Capano (1) , Fabio Marzaioli (2) , Carmina Sirignano (2) , Simona Altieri (2) , Carmine Lubritto (2) , Antonio D’onofrio (2) , Filippo Terrasi (2)

1 CEREGE - Centre européen de recherche et d'enseignement des géosciences de l'environnement
2 Seconda Università degli Studi di Napoli = Second University of Naples

Radiocarbon concentration in atmosphere changes overtime due to anthropogenic and natural factors. Species growth preserves the local atmospheric radiocarbon signature over their life span in the annual tree rings and make it possible to use tree rings for the monitoring of changes in fossil-fuel emissions due to an increase of traffic exhaust, during the last decades. In this paper, the CIRCE AMS system has been used to measure the 14C concentration in tree rings of plants grown near an industrial area and a very busy State Road, in a forest in north Italy. Preliminary results related to tree rings of several years of plants respectively near and far the emitting sources are displayed, in order to estimate the local pollution effect. It is possible to find a dilution in years 2000 and 2006 in both the trees analysed, but not enough data have been analysed yet in order to distinguish the fossil dilution derived from the street vehicular traffic or that from the industries.

Mots clés: AMS; Tree rings; Pollution; Radiocarbon

Domaines: Ingénierie de l'environnement

Manuela Capano, Fabio Marzaioli, Carmina Sirignano, Simona Altieri, Carmine Lubritto, et al.. 14C AMS measurements in tree rings to estimate local fossil CO2 in Bosco Fontana forest (Mantova, Italy). Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms, 2010, 268 (7-8), pp.1113-1116. ⟨10.1016/j.nimb.2009.10.112⟩. ⟨hal-01684308⟩