Establishing a spatio-temporal database of Holocene marine reservoir effects in East Asia, with new paired shell–plant radiocarbon data from Suruga Bay

Abstract To elucidate the chronological and spatial variability of the marine reservoir effect (MRE) in East Asia, radiocarbon ( 14 C) ages of paired marine shell and terrestrial plant samples were determined from identical stratigraphic horizons within Holocene sediment cores. Previous studies of the MRE in southwestern Japan and the Korean Peninsula were systematically reviewed and supplemented with newly obtained data from five sediment cores recovered from Suruga Bay in central Japan. Variations in depositional environments are primarily attributed to sea-level rise during the last deglaciation. Reservoir ages were determined for 12 paired samples derived from inner-bay sediments spanning the interval from approximately 11,000 to 2300 cal BP. The observed temporal variations in the MRE (560 ± 40 to 130 ± 40 14 C yr) are consistent with those reported from the Korean Peninsula and from southwestern Japan, including other regions influenced by the Kuroshio Current. Establishing a spatio-temporal database of 14 C MREs will provide a robust framework for constructing high-resolution chronologies of paleoenvironmental change and the development of human societies on islands surrounded by the ocean.