We examined the use of dC, TOC and C/N geochemistry of sedimentary organic matter to reconstruct former sea levels and paleoenvironments in the absence of suitable microfossil data. The modern distribution of dC, TOC and C/N of 33 vegetation and 74 surface sediment samples collected from four coastal wetlands in the Thames Estuary and Norfolk, UK are described. The dC, TOC and C/N geochemistry ...

1 CAS Key Laboratory of Mineralogy and Metallogeny, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China 2 State Key Laboratory of Isotope Geochemistry, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China 3 Research School of Earth Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia Isotop...

Planktonic foraminifera record oceanic conditions in their shell geochemistry. Many palaeoenvironmental studies have used fossil planktonic foraminifera to constrain past seawater properties by defining species based on their shell morphology. Recent genetic studies, however, have identified ecologically distinct genotypes within traditionally recognized morphospecies, signaling potential reper...

An urban survey of Lisbon, the largest city in Portugal, was carried out to investigate its environmental burden, emphasizing metallic elements and their public health impacts. This paper examines the geochemistry of lead (Pb) and its influence on human health data. A total of 51 soil samples were collected from urban recreational areas used by children to play outdoors. The semi-quantitative a...

State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi’an 710075, China State Key Laboratory of Organic Geochemistry, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China Key Laboratory of Regional Climate-Environment for Temperate East Asia, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of S...

a Key Laboratory of Engineering Geomechanics, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 9825, Beijing 100029, China b Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China c Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China d State Key Laboratory of Environmental Geochemistry, Institute of Geoc...

The foundations of stable isotope geochemistry were laid in 1947 by Urey’s classic paper on the thermodynamic properties of isotopic substances and by Nier’s development of the ratio mass spectrometer. Before discussing details of the naturally occurring variations in stable isotope ratios, it is useful to describe some generalities that are pertinent to the field of non-radiogenic isotope geoc...

Automated geochemical techniques enable reproducible elemental assays of small quantity samples and have been used in recent years in many forensic criminal investigations in England and Wales. Two case studies are presented which highlight the problems of testing the presence of pre-, synor post-crime event sample mixing. The number of elements or compounds analysed can have a bearing upon sta...

Isotopic analysis can be performed on minerals, rocks, soil, tissue, gases, and liquids – just about anything. In view of the broad possibilities, we will only cover a few generalities here. In most instances, the element to be analyzed must be first isolated and purified before it can undergo isotopic analysis in a mass spectrometer. Purification is necessary to avoid isobaric interferences an...

Quantum mechanical electronic structure calculations are playing an increasingly useful role in many areas of mineralogy and geochemistry. This review introduces the density functional method for such calculations, gives an overview of the density functionals developed at the University of Minnesota, and summarizes selected applications using these density functionals that are relevant to miner...