Radiocarbon was measured in atmospheric CO2 from La Jolla, California and in living organic materials from six sites in the northern hemisphere. Atmospheric CO2 D14C values from La Jolla agreed with those previously published records from China Lake, California (Berger et al. 1987) and Vermunt, Austria (Levin et al. 1985). D14C values of fruit and grain samples that grew during 1980 agreed with the atmospheric CO2 D14C measurements. Most of the D14C results of fruit and corn samples stored since the 1940s agreed with tree-ring D14C values for the same time period. In general, agreement was found between the atmospheric CO2 or tree-ring D14C records available for the Northern Hemisphere and the D14C signatures of rapidly exchanging organic matter pools examined in this study. Exceptions were the D14C values of carbonate from egg shells and that of organic carbon from egg insides, which demonstrate that bicarbonate and organic carbon within the egg follow different biochemical pathways.
[Radiocarbon Volume 37, Number 3, 1995]