Publication Date:
2022-05-25
Description:
Author Posting. © Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona, 2010. This article is posted here by permission of Dept. of Geosciences, University of Arizona for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Radiocarbon 52 (2010): 727-734.
Description:
In 2008, a large African baobab (Adansonia digitata L.) from Makulu Makete, South Africa, split vertically
into 2 sections, revealing a large enclosed cavity. Several wood samples collected from the cavity were processed and radiocarbon
dated by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) for determining the age and growth rate dynamics of the tree. The 14C
date of the oldest sample was found to be of 1016 ± 22 BP, which corresponds to a calibrated age of 1000 ± 15 yr. Thus, the
Makulu Makete tree, which eventually collapsed to the ground and died, becomes the second oldest African baobab dated
accurately to at least 1000 yr. The conventional growth rate of the trunk, estimated by the radial increase, declined gradually
over its life cycle. However, the growth rate expressed more adequately by the cross-sectional area increase and by the volume
increase accelerated up to the age of 650 yr and remained almost constant over the past 450 yr.
Description:
This material is based on work supported by a grant from the Romanian
National University Research Council (PN II - IDEI 2354 Nr. 1092) and by US National Science
Foundation under Cooperative Agreement OCE-022828996.
Repository Name:
Woods Hole Open Access Server
Type:
Article
Format:
application/pdf
