| 1. |
- Wiedemeier, Daniel B., et al.
(författare)
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Characterization, Quantification and Compound-specific Isotopic Analysis of Pyrogenic Carbon Using Benzene Polycarboxylic Acids (BPCA)
- 2016
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Ingår i: Journal of Visualized Experiments. - : MyJove Corporation. - 1940-087X. ; :111
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Fire-derived, pyrogenic carbon (PyC), sometimes called black carbon (BC), is the carbonaceous solid residue of biomass and fossil fuel combustion, such as char and soot. PyC is ubiquitous in the environment due to its long persistence, and its abundance might even increase with the projected increase in global wildfire activity and the continued burning of fossil fuel. PyC is also increasingly produced from the industrial pyrolysis of organic wastes, which yields charred soil amendments (biochar). Moreover, the emergence of nanotechnology may also result in the release of PyC-like compounds to the environment. It is thus a high priority to reliably detect, characterize and quantify these charred materials in order to investigate their environmental properties and to understand their role in the carbon cycle. Here, we present the benzene polycarboxylic acid (BPCA) method, which allows the simultaneous assessment of PyC's characteristics, quantity and isotopic composition (C-13 and C-14) on a molecular level. The method is applicable to a very wide range of environmental sample materials and detects PyC over a broad range of the combustion continuum, i.e., it is sensitive to slightly charred biomass as well as high temperature chars and soot. The BPCA protocol presented here is simple to employ, highly reproducible, as well as easily extendable and modifiable to specific requirements. It thus provides a versatile tool for the investigation of PyC in various disciplines, ranging from archeology and environmental forensics to biochar and carbon cycling research.
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| 2. |
- Újvári, Gábor, et al.
(författare)
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Two possible source regions for central Greenland last glacial dust
- 2015
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Ingår i: Geophysical Research Letters. - 0094-8276 .- 1944-8007. ; 42:23
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Dust in Greenland ice cores is used to reconstruct the activity of dust-emitting regions and atmospheric circulation. However, the source of dust material to Greenland over the last glacial period is the subject of considerable uncertainty. Here we use new clay mineral and < 10 mu m Sr-Nd isotopic data from a range of Northern Hemisphere loess deposits in possible source regions alongside existing isotopic data to show that these methods cannot discriminate between two competing hypothetical origins for Greenland dust: an East Asian and/or central European source. In contrast, Hf isotopes (< 10 mu m fraction) of loess samples show considerable differences between the potential source regions. We attribute this to a first-order clay mineralogy dependence of Hf isotopic signatures in the finest silt/clay fractions, due to absence of zircons. As zircons would also be absent in Greenland dust, this provides a new way to discriminate between hypotheses for Greenland dust sources.
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