Stable isotope laboratory
Stable-isotopes are powerful tracers of chemical and biological transformations, both in natural environments and in laboratory experiments. Such measurements are used extensively in geographical, geoscientific, ecological, chemical and archaeological research for studies of carbon cycling in the biosphere, atmosphere and oceans, palaeoenvironmental reconstruction, food web, dietary and metabolic studies, studies of molecular and biomolecular reactions and environmental chemistry and monitoring.
The stable-isotope laboratory in the School of Geography and Geosciences has the capacity to determine the stable-isotope composition of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, sulphur and hydrogen in microgram quantities of natural and synthetic materials, including solid or liquid samples containing organic matter, inorganic carbonates or water and gaseous samples such as respired carbon dioxide or atmosphere.
The laboratory is based around a Finnegan Delta plus XP gas source mass spectrometer, operable in both dual inlet and continuous flow modes, coupled to (i) an elemental analyser with zero blank auto-sampler for small sample measurements of organic matter in soils, sediments and biological tissues and (ii) a gasbench II preparation system for the automated analysis of carbonates, waters and gases.
The laboratory is currently primarily used for studies of the soil carbon component of the global carbon cycle, terrestrial palaeoenvironmental reconstruction and palaeoceanography. For examples of some current projects, click the page links to the left.
