Plum {rplum}

Main 210Pb age-depth modelling function

Description

This is the main age-depth modelling function of the rplum package for 210Pb age-modelling.

Usage

Plum(
  core = "HP1C",
  thick = 1,
  otherdates = NA,
  coredir = "",
  phi.shape = 2,
  phi.mean = 50,
  s.shape = 5,
  s.mean = 10,
  Al = 0.1,
  date.sample = c(),
  n.supp = c(),
  ra.case = c(),
  Bqkg = TRUE,
  seed = NA,
  prob = 0.95,
  d.min = 0,
  d.max = NA,
  d.by = 1,
  depths.file = FALSE,
  depths = c(),
  depth.unit = "cm",
  age.unit = "yr",
  unit = depth.unit,
  acc.shape = 1.5,
  acc.mean = 10,
  mem.strength = 10,
  mem.mean = 0.5,
  boundary = NA,
  hiatus.depths = NA,
  hiatus.max = 10000,
  add = c(),
  after = 1e-04/thick,
  cc = 1,
  cc1 = "IntCal20",
  cc2 = "Marine20",
  cc3 = "SHCal20",
  cc4 = "ConstCal",
  cc.dir = "",
  postbomb = 0,
  delta.R = 0,
  delta.STD = 0,
  t.a = 3,
  t.b = 4,
  normal = FALSE,
  suggest = TRUE,
  reswarn = c(10, 200),
  remember = TRUE,
  ask = TRUE,
  run = TRUE,
  defaults = "defaultPlum_settings.txt",
  sep = ",",
  dec = ".",
  runname = "",
  slump = c(),
  BCAD = FALSE,
  ssize = 4000,
  th0 = c(),
  burnin = min(500, ssize),
  MinAge = c(),
  youngest.age = c(),
  MaxAge = c(),
  oldest.age = c(),
  cutoff = 0.001,
  rounded = 1,
  plot.pdf = TRUE,
  dark = 1,
  date.res = 100,
  age.res = 200,
  close.connections = TRUE,
  older.than = c(),
  younger.than = c(),
  save.ages = FALSE,
  verbose = TRUE,
  ...
)

Arguments

core

Name of the core, given using quotes. Defaults to one of the cores provided with rplum, core="HP1C" also reported by Aquino-Lopez et al. (2018). Also available is LL14, a core kindly provided by Dr Lysanna Anderson (USGS). LL14 has ra-226 data (so can be run with ra.case=1 or ra.case=2, see below), and also has additional C-14 and cal BP data (these can be added using otherdates="LL14_14C.csv"). The original LL14 core has more 14C data than provided here (for reasons of brevity). To run your own core, produce a .csv file with the dates as outlined in the manual, add a folder with the core's name to the default directory for cores (see coredir), and save the .csv file there. For example, the file's location and name could be Plum_runs/MyCore/MyCore.csv. Then run Plum as follows: Plum("MyCore"). Note that for Pb-210 data, the depth in the .csv should be the bottom of the slice, not the mid-point. (For any non-Pb data, depths are the midpoints of their slices). Also make sure that the thickness and density are given correctly for each Pb-210 data point.

thick

Plum will divide the core into sections of equal thickness specified by thick (default thick=1).

otherdates

Name of (optional) file with radiocarbon dates. This file should have the same format as the one used for rbacon. For example, Bacon("LL14", otherdates="LL14_14C.csv").

coredir

Folder where the core's files core are and/or will be located. This will be a folder with the core's name, within either the folder coredir='Plum_runs/', or the folder Cores/ if it already exists within R's working directory, or a custom-built folder. For example, use coredir="." to place the core's folder within the current working directory, or coredir="F:" if you want to put the core's folder and files on a USB drive loaded under F:. Thinner (and thus more) sections will result in smoother age-models, but too many sections can cause ‘run-away’ models.

phi.shape

Shape parameter of the prior gamma distribution used for the influx of Pb-210 to the sediment, default phi.shape=2.

phi.mean

Mean parameter of the prior gamma distribution used for the influx of Pb-210 to the sediment, default phi.mean=50.

s.shape

Shape parameter of the prior gamma distribution used for the supported Pb-210 to the sediment, default s.shape=5.

s.mean

Mean parameter of the prior gamma distribution used for the supported Pb-210 to the sediment, default s.mean=10.

Al

Parameter used to limit the chronologies described in Aquino-Lopez et al. (2018) for the minimum distinguishable unsupported activity; default Al=0.1.

date.sample

Date (in calendar years, e.g., AD 2023) at which the core was measured for Pb-120. This date will be used as a surface date and is assumed to have no uncertainty. If the date is not provided (in the .csv file or as date.sample), Plum will ask for it.

n.supp

This value will delete n.supp data points from the deepest part of the core, and these points will then be used exclusively to estimate the supported activity. If this option is used, a constant supported Pb-210 will be assumed, n.supp=-1.

ra.case

How to use radium-226 measurements if they are provided in the core's .csv file. 1 = assume constant radium, 2 = assume varying radium and use the radium measurements as individual estimates of supported Pb-210. If no radium measurements are present, use ra.case=0.

Bqkg

This variable indicates whether total Pb-210 is expressed in Bq/kg (default; Bqkg=TRUE) or dpm/g if set to FALSE.

seed

Seed used for C++ executions; if it is not assigned then the seed is set by system. Default seed=NA.

prob

Confidence interval to report. This should lie between 0 and 1, default prob=0.95 (95 %).

d.min

Minimum depth of age-depth model (use this to extrapolate to depths higher than the top dated depth).

d.max

Maximum depth of age-depth model (use this to extrapolate to depths below the bottom dated depth).

d.by

Depth intervals at which ages are calculated. Defaults to d.by=1.

depths.file

By default, Plum will calculate the ages for the depths d.min to d.max in steps of d.by. If depths.file=TRUE, Plum will read a file containing the depths for which you require ages. This file, containing the depths in a single column without a header, should be stored within coredir, and its name should start with the core's name and end with ‘_depths.txt’. Then specify depths.file=TRUE (default FALSE). See also depths.

depths

By default, Plum will calculate the ages for the depths d.min to d.max in steps of d.by. Alternative depths can be provided as, e.g., depths=seq(0, 100, length=500) or as a file, e.g., depths=read.table("CoreDepths.txt". See also depths.file

depth.unit

Units of the depths. Defaults to depth.unit="cm".

age.unit

Units of the ages. Defaults to age.unit="yr".

unit

Deprecated and replaced by depth.unit.

acc.shape

The prior for the accumulation rate consists of a gamma distribution with two parameters. Its shape is set by acc.shape (default acc.shape=1.5; higher values result in more peaked shapes).

acc.mean

The accumulation rate prior consists of a gamma distribution with two parameters. Its mean is set by acc.mean (default acc.mean=10 yr/cm (or whatever age or depth units are chosen), which can be changed to, e.g., 5, 10 or 50 for different kinds of deposits). Multiple values can be given in case of hiatuses or boundaries, e.g., Plum(hiatus.depths=23, acc.mean=c(5,20))

mem.strength

The prior for the memory (dependence of accumulation rate between neighbouring depths) is a beta distribution, which looks much like the gamma distribution. but its values are always between 0 (no assumed memory) and 1 (100% memory). Its default settings of mem.strength=10 (higher values result in more peaked shapes) allow for a large range of posterior memory values.

mem.mean

The prior for the memory is a beta distribution, which looks much like the gamma distribution but its values are always between 0 (no assumed memory) and 1 (100% memory). Its default settings of mem.mean=0.5 allow for a large range of posterior memory values.

boundary

The assumed depths of any boundary, which divides sections of different accumulation rate regimes (e.g., as indicated by major change in the stratigraphy). No hiatus is assumed between these sections, and memory is reset crossing the boundary. Different accumulation priors can be set for the sections above and below the boundary, e.g., acc.mean=c(5, 20). See also hiatus.depths, mem.mean, acc.mean and acc.shape. Setting many boundaries might not work, and having more than one boundary per model section (see 'thick') might not work either.

hiatus.depths

The assumed depths for any hiatus should be provided as, e.g., hiatus.depths=20 for one at 20cm depth, and hiatus.depths=c(20,40) for two hiatuses at 20 and 40 cm depth.

hiatus.max

The prior for the maximum length of the hiatus. Hiatus length is a uniform distribution, with equal probabilities between 0 and hiatus.max yr (or whatever other age.unit is chosen).

add

Add a value to the maximum hiatus length if a boundary is chosen. Defaults to 100 yr (or whatever other age unit is chosen). Can be adapted if Plum complains that the parameters are out of support.

after

Sets a short section above and below hiatus.depths within which to calculate ages. For internal calculations - do not change.

cc

Calibration curve for C-14 dates: cc=1 for IntCal20 (northern hemisphere terrestrial), cc=2 for Marine20 (marine), cc=3 for SHCal20 (southern hemisphere terrestrial). For dates that are already on the cal BP scale use cc=0.

cc1

For northern hemisphere terrestrial 14C dates (IntCal20).

cc2

For marine 14C dates (Marine20).

cc3

For southern hemisphere 14C dates (SHCal20).

cc4

Use an alternative curve (3 columns: cal BP, 14C age, error, separated by white spaces and saved as a plain-text file). See cc.dir.

cc.dir

Directory where the calibration curves for C14 dates cc are located. By default cc.dir="" since they are loaded into R's memory. For example, use cc.dir="." to choose current working directory, or cc.dir="Curves/" to choose sub-folder Curves/. Note that all calibration curves should reside in the same directory. If you want to add a custom-built curve, put it in the directory where the default calibration curves are (probably list.files(paste0(.libPaths(), "/IntCal/extdata/"))). Alternatively produce a new folder, and add your curve as well as the default calibration curves there (cc1, cc2 and cc3; e.g., write.table(copyCalibrationCurve(1), "./3Col_intcal20.14C", sep="\t").)

postbomb

Use a postbomb curve for negative (i.e. postbomb) 14C ages. 0 = none, 1 = NH1, 2 = NH2, 3 = NH3, 4 = SH1-2, 5 = SH3

delta.R

Mean of core-wide age offsets (e.g., regional marine offsets).

delta.STD

Error of core-wide age offsets (e.g., regional marine offsets).

t.a

The dates are treated using the t distribution by default (normal=FALSE). The t-distribution has two parameters, t.a and t.b, set at 3 and 4 by default (see Christen and Perez, 2009). If you want to assign narrower error distributions (more closely resembling the normal distribution), set t.a and t.b at for example 33 and 34 respectively (e.g., for specific dates in your .csv file). For symmetry reasons, t.a must always be equal to t.b-1.

t.b

The dates are treated using the t distribution by default (normal=FALSE). The t-distribution has two parameters, t.a and t.b, set at 3 and 4 by default (see Christen and Perez, 2010). If you want to assign narrower error distributions (more closely resembling the normal distribution), set t.a and t.b at for example 33 and 34 respectively (e.g., for specific dates in your .csv file). For symmetry reasons, t.a must always be equal to t.b-1.

normal

By default, Plum uses the t-distribution to treat the dates. Use normal=TRUE to use the normal/Gaussian distribution. This will generally give higher weight to the dates.

suggest

If initial analysis of the data indicates abnormally slow or fast accumulation rates, Plum will suggest to change the prior. Also, if the length of the core would cause too few or too many sections with the default settings, Plum will suggest an alternative section thickness thick, and it will suggest approaches to estimating supported Pb-120. Accept these suggested alternative settings by typing "y" (or "yes please" if you prefer to be polite), or leave as is by typing "n" (or anything else, really). To get rid of these suggestions, use suggest=FALSE.

reswarn

Plum will warn you if the number of sections lies outside the safe range (default between 10 and 200 sections; reswarn=c(10,200)). Too few sections could lead to an ‘elbowy’ model while with too many sections the modelling process can get lost, resulting in age-models far away from the dated depths.

remember

Plum will try to remember which settings you have applied to your cores (default remember=TRUE). If you run into inconsistencies or other problems, try running your core again with remember=FALSE, or, start cleanly by typing Plum.cleanup().

ask

By default Plum will ask you to confirm that you want to run the core with the provided settings. Disable this using ask=FALSE (e.g., for batch runs).

run

In order to load an existing Plum run instead of producing a new one, you can use run=FALSE.

defaults

Name of the file containing settings for the core. For internal use only - do not change.

sep

Separator between the fields of the plain text file containing the dating information. Default sep=",".

dec

Character for decimal points. Default to dec=".".

runname

Text to add to the corename for specific runs, e.g., runname="MyCore_Test1".

slump

Upper and lower depths of any sections of assumed abrupt accumulation, that require excising before age-modelling (and adding after age-modelling). Requires pairs of depths, e.g., slump=c(10,15,60,67) for slumps at 67-60 and 15-10 cm core depth.

BCAD

The calendar scale of graphs and age output-files is in cal BP (calendar or calibrated years before the present, where the present is AD 1950) by default, but can be changed to BC/AD using BCAD=TRUE.

ssize

The approximate amount of iterations to store at the end of the MCMC run. Default 2000; decrease for faster (but less reliable) runs or increase for cores where the MCMC mixing (panel at upper-left corner of age-model graph) appears problematic.

th0

Starting years for the MCMC iterations.

burnin

Amount of initial, likely sub-optimal MCMC iterations that will be removed.

MinAge

Deprecated - use youngest.age instead.

youngest.age

Minimum age limit for Bacon runs, default at current year in cal BP. To set plot limits, use age.min instead.

MaxAge

Deprecated - use oldest.age instead.

oldest.age

Maximum age limit for Bacon runs, default at 1,000,000 cal BP. To set plot limits, use age.max instead.

cutoff

Avoid plotting very low probabilities of date distributions (default cutoff=0.001).

rounded

Rounding of calendar years. Defaults to 1 decimal.

plot.pdf

Produce a pdf file of the age-depth plot. Defaults to plot.pdf=TRUE after a Plum run.

dark

Darkness of the greyscale age-depth model. The darkest grey value is dark=1 by default. Lower values will result in lighter grey but values >1 are not allowed.

date.res

Date distributions are plotted using date.res=100 segments by default.

age.res

Resolution or amount of greyscale pixels to cover the age scale of the age-model plot. Default yr.res=200.

close.connections

Internal option to close connections after a run. Default close.connections=TRUE.

older.than

an option to enable dates at the limit of C-14 dating. If there are older.than dates, they tell us that the core should be older than a certain age at that depth. For example, if the 7th and 8th dates in the core's .csv file are older-than dates, use as older.than=c(7,8). The MCMC run could be problematic if the older-than ages do not fit with the other information.

younger.than

an option to provide younger-than ages, for example a historical pollen marker. If there are younger-than dates, they tell us that the core should be younger than a certain age at that depth. For example, if the 7th and 8th dates in the core's .csv file are younger.than dates, use as younger.than=c(7,8). The MCMC run could be problematic if the younger.than ages do not fit with the other information.

save.ages

If you want to have a file with the MCMC-derived ages for all the age-depth model's elbows, set save.ages=TRUE and a file with the ages will be saved in the core's folder, ending in "_elbowages.txt".

verbose

Provide feedback on what is happening (default verbose=TRUE).

...

options for the age-depth graph. See agedepth and calib.plot

Details

Plum is an approach to age-depth modelling that uses Bayesian statistics in order to reconstruct accumulation histories for 210Pb-dated deposits by taking into account prior information, and can combine 210Pb, radiocarbon and other dates (Aquino et al. 2018).

Plum handles 210Pb and other dated depths within in a core, by dividing a core into many thin vertical sections (by default of thick=1 cm thickness), and through millions of Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) iterations estimates the flux of 210Pb and supported 210Pb, as well as the accumulation rate (in years/cm; so more correctly, sedimentation times) for each of these sections. Combined with an estimated starting date for the first section, these accumulation rates and values for 210Pb then form the age-depth and 210Pb model. The accumulation rates are constrained by prior information on the accumulation rate (acc.mean, acc.shape) and its variability between neighbouring depths, or "memory" (mem.mean, mem.strength). Hiatuses can be introduced as well, also constrained by prior information (hiatus.max). The 210Pb flux (phi) and supported 210Pb (s) are constrained by priors phi.mean, phi.shape, s.mean and s.shape.

Although Plum was developed for 210Pb dates, it can also include absolute dates (e.g., 14C, OSL, tephra or other dates on a calendar scale). Radiocarbon dates should be calibrated using either IntCal20 (for terrestrial northern hemisphere material; Reimer et al., 2020), Marine20 (for marine dates; Hughen et al., 2020), SHCal20 (for southern hemisphere dates; Hogg et al., 2020) or any other calibration curve (see below), while modern 14C dates are calibrated using one of the post-bomb calibration curves (NH1, NH2 or NH3 for the northern hemisphere, SH1-2 or SH3 for the southern hemisphere; Hua et al., 2022). See http://calib.org/CALIBomb/ if you are unsure which postbomb curve you need. If Plum finds postbomb dates (negative 14C ages) and you haven't specified a postbomb curve, you will be prompted. Provide postbomb curves as, e.g., postbomb=1 for the NH1 postbomb curve (2 for NH2, 3 for NH3, 4 for SH1-2, 5 for SH3).

For calendar dates, i.e. dates that are already on the calendar scale and thus should not be calibrated, setcc=0. Plum also needs the date of sampling, in AD (date.sample).

Value

An age-depth model graph, its age estimates, a summary, and the info variable which contains all relevant information.

Author(s)

Maarten Blaauw, J. Andres Christen, Marco A. Aquino L.

References

Aquino-Lopez, M.A., Blaauw, M., Christen, J.A., Sanderson, N., 2018. Bayesian analysis of 210Pb dating. Journal of Agricultural, Biological, and Environmental Statistics 23, 317-333.

Blaauw, M. and Christen, J.A., 2011. Flexible paleoclimate age-depth models using an autoregressive gamma process. Bayesian Analysis 6, 457-474.

Christen, J.A., Perez E.S., 2010. A new robust statistical model for radiocarbon data. Radiocarbon 51, 1047-1059.

Hogg et al., 2020. SHCal20 Southern Hemisphere calibration, 0-55,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 62, 759-778.

Hua et al., 2022. Atmospheric radiocarbon for the period 1950-2019. Radiocarbon 64(4), 723-745, doi:10.1017/RDC.2021.95

Hughen et al., 2020. Marine20-the marine radiocarbon age calibration curve (0-55,000 cal BP). Radiocarbon 62, 779-820.

Jones, V.J., Stevenson, A.C., Battarbee, R.W., 1989. Acidification of lakes in Galloway, south west Scotland - a diatom and pollen study of the post-glacial history of the Round Loch of Glenhead. Journal of Ecology 77, 1-23.

Reimer et al., 2020. The IntCal20 Northern Hemisphere radiocarbon age calibration curve (0–55 cal kBP). Radiocarbon 62, 725-757.

Examples

  Plum(ask=FALSE, ssize=1000, coredir=tempfile(), date.sample=2018.5, ra.case=0, n.supp=3)