Monitoring of atmospheric ¹⁴CO₂ in central European countries

Abstract

Carbon-14 is a radionuclide with global occurrence and partly natural origin. The main anthropogenic sources of the ¹⁴C were the nuclear weapon tests, namely at the beginning of the 1960s, nowadays the nuclear energy facilities are the main sources. Maximum in the atmospheric ¹⁴C activity was observed in 1963. In the following years the considerable ¹⁴C activity decrease was due to intensive carbon deposition into oceanic water and sediments particularly. At present the ¹⁴C activity approximates the level before nuclear age, corresponding to ∼0 ‰ Δ ¹⁴C. Another actual type of anthropogenic influence is the Suess effect, i.e., the dilution of ¹⁴C by fossil carbon (fuel combustion). This effect causes a decrease of the ¹⁴C activity on a global, regional and local scale. Thus, monitoring of actual reference level of ¹⁴C activity gives a possibility to indicate local or global anthropogenic influences. This paper reporting data from the atmospheric ¹⁴CO₂ monitoring in the Czech Republic and Hungary compares the actual results with other European countries. The observed effects connected with local and regional CO₂ releases from fossil fuel combustion are discussed.