Research: The Modern Surface Environment

At the Earth’s surface, atmosphere, lithosphere, biosphere and hydrosphere interact. A rewarding hunting ground for chemical fingerprinters. We, for example, work on research projects at the land-ocean interface.

Given here is a snippet of data obtained from a ca. 200 year old coral from the Great Barrier Reef of Australia (data courtesy of Michael Lawrence). Large summer flood events can be recognized by the shape of the coral rare earth element pattern. From careful analysis of such coral cores, it is possible to understand how much agricultural land use has contributed to coral reef stress.

This research is tied into a much larger project dealing with climate change in semi-arid environments.

Laser ablation path (yellow) along a polished thin section of the ~200 yr old South Molle Island coral core, imaged by SEM. Note the wider outer track (white) of the pre-ablation line.

Laser ablation path (yellow) along a polished thin section of the ~200 yr old
South Molle Island coral core, imaged by SEM. Note the wider outer track (white)
of the pre-ablation line.

Image of UV-luminescence of a 5 cm coral slice shows higher luminescence bands that form during summer flood events.

Image of UV-luminescence of a 5 cm coral slice shows higher luminescence bands
that form during summer flood events.

Average winter patterns reflect incorporation of REY from seawater, but patterns isolated from fluorescent summer areas have a more terrigenous character.

Average winter patterns reflect incorporation of REY from seawater, but patterns isolated from
fluorescent summer areas have a more terrigenous character.
 
 
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