Articles | Volume 7, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/gchron-7-583-2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/gchron-7-583-2025
Short communication/technical note
 | 
24 Nov 2025
Short communication/technical note |  | 24 Nov 2025

Short communication: Estimating radiocarbon reservoir effects in Bolivian Amazon freshwater lakes

Asier García-Escárzaga, Umberto Lombardo, Patricia M. Bello-Alonso, José M. Capriles, André Colonese, Kate Dudgeon, Carlos D. Simões, and Ricardo Fernandes

Cited articles

Alves, E. Q., Guédron, S., Delaere, C., Boudin, M., Chevalier, A., van den Brande, T., Ligovich, G., Souza, R., Eeckhout, P., and Macario, K.: Updated multi-method estimates of Lake Titicaca's radiocarbon reservoir offset, Quaternary Sci. Rev., 366, 109463, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109463, 2025. 
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Ascough, P. L., Cook, G. T., Church, M. J., Dunbar, E., Einarsson, Á., McGovern, T. H., Dugmore, A. J., Perdikaris, S., Hastie, H., Friðriksson, A., and Gestsdóttir, H.: Temporal and spatial variations in freshwater 14C reservoir effects: Lake Mývatn, northern Iceland, Radiocarbon, 52, 1098–1112, https://doi.org/10.1017/s003382220004618x, 2010. 
Azmi, W. A., Khoo, S. C., Ng, L. C., Baharuddin, N., Aziz, A. A., and Ma, N. L.: The current trend in biological control approaches in the mitigation of golden apple snail Pomacea spp, Biol. Control, 175, 105060, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocontrol.2022.105060, 2022. 
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Short summary
The Llanos de Moxos (Bolivian Amazon) host thousands of anthropogenic forest islands from the Holocene. These sites contain shell middens primarily composed of freshwater snails (Pomacea spp.), often used for ¹⁴C dating. To evaluate potential radiocarbon reservoir effects (RRE), modern Pomacea shells and coeval tree leaves were analysed. Results reveal no significant RRE, supporting their reliability for dating archaeological and paleoecological records in the region.
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