Stable Isotope Facility

We specialise in the study of geochemical processes in the hydrosphere and atmosphere, with particular strength in ¹⁵N/¹⁴N and ³⁴S/³²S analyses of a wide variety of compounds associated with nutrient transfer and pollution in the global nitrogen and sulphur cycles. ¹⁸O/¹⁶O analysis of nitrates, phosphates and sulphates, which can provide valuable additional information on these environmentally important species, has now been added as a routine capability.

Our fluorination ¹⁸O/¹⁶O and ³⁰Si/²⁸Si analyses of diatoms and other opaline forms of silica is a unique capability in the UK and one of only a handful of laboratories of its kind in the world.

For archaeological research, we specialise in triple ¹³C/¹²C, ¹⁵N/¹⁴N and ³⁴S/³²S methods in palaeodietary studies; in addition, we have the capability to analyse ¹⁸O/¹⁶O on a wide range of material including both phosphate and carbonate analyses of bioapatite. The wider facility’s combined ¹⁸O/¹⁶O and ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr capabilities are especially valuable in studies of archaeological migration.

Materials we analyse include:

• Waters: ²H/¹H and ¹⁸O/¹⁶O of marine and fresh waters, fluid inclusions (following microlitre extractive methods) and soil/plant materials (following vacuum distillation)
• Carbonates: ¹³C/¹²C and ¹⁸O/¹⁶O of microfossil and other pure calcium carbonates (down to 5 μg), impure carbonates and aqueous bicarbonate
• Silicates and phosphates: ¹⁸O/¹⁶O and ³⁰Si/²⁸Si of rock minerals, biogenic silica and tooth/bone materials
• Organic materials: ²H/¹H, ¹³C/¹²C, ¹⁵N/¹⁴N, ¹⁸O/¹⁶O, and ³⁴S/³²S of bulk organic materials (plants, soils, etc.)
• Nitrogen and sulphur compounds: ¹⁵N/¹⁴N, ³⁴S/³²S, and ¹⁸O/¹⁶O of nitrate, ammonium, sulphate, sulphide and organic nitrogen and sulphur
• Phosphate: ¹⁸O/¹⁶O of phosphate from soils, sediments and teeth
• Methane: ¹³C/¹²C and ²H/¹H in gas and water samples

The Stable Isotope Facility has eleven isotope ratio mass spectrometer systems:

• Elementar isoprime visION with vario PYRO cube for analysis of nitrogen and sulphur compounds: ¹⁵N/¹⁴N, ³⁴S/³²S, and ¹⁸O/¹⁶O of nitrate, ammonium, sulphate, sulphide and organic nitrogen and sulphur as well as ²H/¹H, ¹³C/¹²C, ¹⁵N/¹⁴N, ¹⁸O/¹⁶O, and ³⁴S/³²S of bulk organic materials (plants, soils, sediments, etc.)
• Elementar isoprime precisION with vario ISOTOPE cube for analysis of ¹³C/¹²C, ¹⁵N/¹⁴N and C/N of bulk organic materials (plants, soils, sediments etc.)
• Elementar isoprime precisION with iso FLOW for analysis of ¹³C/¹²C and ¹⁸O/¹⁶O of aqueous bicarbonate
• Sercon HS2002 with CyroGas for the analysis of ¹³C/¹²C and ²H/¹H of methane from high to atmospheric concentrations in both gas and water samples
• Thermo Delta V with EA IsoLink for very high precision analysis on a variety of matrices for O/H and C/N/S, including triple analysis of C/N/S on small sample sizes at high precision
• IsoPrime100 with MultiCarb for analysis of ¹³C/¹²C and ¹⁸O/¹⁶O of single microfossils
• IsoPrime100 with AquaPrep for analysis of water ¹⁸O/¹⁶O in marine and fresh waters, fluid inclusions and soil/plant materials
• GV IsoPrime with EuroPyrOH for analysis of water ²H/¹H in marine and fresh waters, fluid inclusions and soil/plant materials
• Thermo Finnigan MAT 253 with Manifold for analysis of ¹⁸O/¹⁶O and ³⁰Si/²⁸Si of rock minerals, biogenic silica and tooth/bone materials
• GV IsoPrime with MultiCarb for analysis of ¹³C/¹²C and ¹⁸O/¹⁶O of microfossil and other pure calcium carbonates
• VG Optima with Manifold for analysis of ¹³C/¹²C and ¹⁸O/¹⁶O of impure carbonates and aqueous bicarbonate

2023

April 2023: Angela Lamb has recently been successful in securing a NERC Standard Grant: “Nature of the Beast? Resolving drivers of prey choice, competition and resilience in wolves”, in collaboration with Professor Danielle Schreve (Royal Holloway University of London). The project will explore and quantify variation in modern and past wolf diet, in order to assess the impact of forcing factors such as changes in climate, environment, prey community and carnivore competition on feeding behaviour and morphology, and the rates of change at which these occur. This will be the first, most comprehensive and state-of-the-art examination of diet in modern and recent (<250,000 year) European fossil wolf records.

March 2023: Peter Wynn, Ben Surridge (Both Lancaster University) and Andi Smith have been awarded a NERC Exploring the Frontiers Grant (£100,000) entitled: Establishing a new palaeothermometer from the speleothem archive of phosphate-oxygen isotopes.

Temperature records are critical for understanding past and future climate. However, reconstructing past temperature dynamics is incredibly difficult. Of the currently available terrestrial archives of past temperature, these are often spatially limited, suffer from ambiguity around calibration, or require large sample sizes. These issues have prevented the development of a high resolution, high density network of terrestrial temperature records. This is now often considered the single most significant gap in the palaeoclimate archive. Here, we seek to provide a breakthrough in the field of

temperature reconstruction by developing a new palaeothermometer using phosphate-oxygen isotopes.

2022

October 2022: Congratulations to those who have received NEIF funding at the autumn 2022 meeting for the following research projects.

2573.1022. Dr J D Mackay. Water cycling in high-altitude wetlands – implications for water security in the Peruvian Andes.

2575.0922. Dr GP Wilson. Character and spatial expression of climate instability in the western Balkans during the Last Glacial-Interglacial transition.

2580.1022. Prof M Lee. Quantifying Holocene environmental change using the Scottish speleothem record.

September 2022: Congratulations to Professor Melanie Leng who has been presented with an Honorary Doctor of Science from Oxford Brookes University during this years graduation ceremonies. The Honorary Doctor of science is an academic research degree awarded in recognition of a substantial and sustained contribution to scientific knowledge.

May 2022: Congratulations to those who have received NEIF funding at the spring 2022 meeting for the following research projects.

• 2506.0422. Prof AC Mitchell (University of Wales, Aberystwyth): Using a multi-isotope approach to understand carbon cycling and redox dynamics in different coal mine water settings in the South Wales Coalfield.
• 2524.0422. Dr JE Sherriff (King’s College London): Testing the potential of stable isotopic analysis of calcretes to understand hydroclimatic change and Middle Palaeolithic hominin population dynamics in the southern Caucasus.
• 2535.0422. Dr ALA Johnson (University of Derby): Seasonal marine temperatures in the Pliocene and early Pleistocene of Europe.

September 2023: BGS laboratory spotlight: isotopes as recorders of climate and environmental change.

Find out how measuring oxygen and carbon isotopes in tiny fossils improves our understanding of past climate.

More information

August 2023: ‘Core Blimey!’– A PhD fieldwork trip to India.

NERC Envision PhD student Hamish Duncalf-Youngson recently visited Loktak Lake in Manipur, Northeast India, to engage with local stakeholders and conduct fieldwork.

More information

August 2023: Midlands Innovation TALENT placement at BGS.

Jodie Brown revisits her time at BGS’s Stable Isotope Facility as part of the Midlands Innovation TALENT project, which aims to increase the status of technicians.

More information

February 2023: When did the cows come home? By David Osborne

PhD student David Osborne is exploring Bronze Age animal husbandry using isotopes and X-rays.

More information

July 2022: Training in stable isotope analysis as a PhD student from Croatia

Recently, Ivona Ivkić Filipović visited BGS to undertake a placement at the Stable Isotope Facility. Here, she tells us a little about her experience and how it will contribute to her PhD research

More information

June 2022: My role as a BGS geochemistry technician by Kotryna Savickaite

My name is Kotryna Savickaite and I have recently taken up the position of geochemistry technician at the Stable Isotope Facility at BGS in Keyworth. My main responsibilities involve analysing the geochemistry of carbonate samples, in particular the amount of organic material in them and their stable isotope geochemistry, which tells us about the environment in which they were originally deposited. This is increasingly important as the human impact on the planet is changing the environment.

More information

2021

April 2021

SIF staff contributed to a number of presentations at this year’s European Geophysical Union meeting:

Transport and storage of anthropogenic contaminants in the Red River Delta, Vietnam

Virginia Panizzo, Lucy Roberts, Nga Do, Sarah Taylor, Michael Watts, Elliott Hamilton, Suzanne McGowan, Duc Trinh, Melanie Leng, and Jorge Salgado

Mon, 26 Apr, 09:15–09:17

Sclerochronological evidence of pronounced seasonality from the Pliocene of the southern North Sea Basin, and its implication

Andrew Johnson, Annemarie Valentine, Melanie Leng, Bernd Schöne, Hilary Sloane, and Stijn Goolaerts

Thu, 29 Apr, 14:15–14:17

Oxygen isotopic evidence of climate variability in southern England since the Medieval Period.

Joanna Tindall, Jonathan Holmes, Ian Candy, Melanie Leng, Kira Rehfeld, Louise Sime, Irene Malmierca Vallet, Thierry Fonville, Pete Langdon, and David Sear

Fri, 30 Apr, 09:21–09:23

April 2021

Congratulations to Melanie Leng,head of the stable isotope facility at BGS, who has been included in Reuters’ Hot List, a list of the top 1000 most influential climate scientists in the world, with 444 publications and over 13 500 citations to her name. Mel’s ranking of 522nd in the world puts her in the top 100 climate scientists in the UK.

The Reuters Hot List was created by ranking scientists based on the number of papers published, the field citation ratio and a measure of each paper’s reach. It’s not a list of the ‘best’ or ‘most important’, but the most influential.

2023

Shen, J, Smith, A C, Barnett, M J, Morgan, A, and Wynn, P M. 2023. Identifying sulphate-reducing and magnetotactic bacteria in a hyperalkaline cave system. Cave and Karst Science.

Smedley, P L, Bearcock, J M, Ward, R S, Crewdson, E, Bowes, M J,  Darling, W G, Smith, A C. 2023. Monitoring of methane in groundwater from the Vale of Pickering, UK: Temporal variability and source discrimination. Chemical Geology.

De Lira Mota, M A, Dunkley Jones, T, Sulaiman, N. et al. 2023. Multi-proxy evidence for sea level fall at the onset of the Eocene-Oligocene transition. Nature Communications.

Prohaska, A,  Seddon, A W R, Rach, O, Smith, A,  Sachse, D, Willis, K J. 2023. Long-term ecological responses of a lowland dipterocarp forest to climate changes and nutrient availability. New Phytologist.

Meredith, M P et al. 2023. Tracing the impacts of recent rapid sea ice changes and the A68 megaberg on the surface freshwater balance of the Weddell and Scotia Seas. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A.

Meijers, A et al. 2023. Finale: impact of the ORCHESTRA/ENCORE programmes on Southern Ocean heat and carbon understanding. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A.

Swann, G E A, and Snelling, A M. 2023. Isotope sample preparation of diatoms for paleoenvironmental research. PLoS ONE.

Lloyd, J M, Ribeiro, S, Weckström, K, Callard, L, Cofaigh, C Ó, Leng, M J, Gulliver, P, and Roberts, D H. 2023. Ice-ocean interactions at the Northeast Greenland Ice stream (NEGIS) over the past 11,000 years. Quaternary Science Reviews.

Karlovi´c, I, Markovi´c, T, Smith, A C, and Maldini, K. 2023. Impact of Gravel Pits on Water Quality in Alluvial Aquifers. Hydrology.

Suzanne McGowan, Do Thu Nga, Trinh Anh Duc, Virginia Panizzo, Jorge Salgado, Lucy Roberts, Melanie Leng, Andi Smith, Christopher Vane (2023). Water quality in rivers of the Red River Delta. Research summary.

Pearson, J, Evans, J,  Lamb, A, Baird, D, Hodder, I, Marciniak, A, Spencer Larsen, C, Knüsel, C, Haddow, S, Marin, S, Bogaard, A, Fairbairn, A, Plug, J, Mazzucato, C, Mustafaoğlu, G, Feldman, M, Somel, M, and Fernández-Domínguez, E. 2023. Mobility and kinship in the world’s first village societies. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 120 (4) e2209480119.

2022 

Lacey, J H, Sloane, H J, Leng, M J, and Crowley, S F. 2022. Improving the routine analysis of siderite for δ13C and δ18O in environmental change research. Rapid Commun Mass Spectrom. e9456.

Wagner, B, Tauber, P, Francke, A, Leicher, N, Binnie, S A, Cvetkoska, A, Jovanovska, E, Just, J, Lacey, J H, Levkov, Z, Lindhorst, K, Kouli, K, Krastel, S, Panagiotopoulos, K, Ulfers, A, Zaova, D, Donders, T H, Grazhdani, A, Koutsodendris, A, Leng, M J, Sadori, L, Scheinert, M, Vogel, H, Wonik, T, Zanchetta, G, and Wilke, T. 2022. The geodynamic and limnological evolution of Balkan Lake Ohrid, possibly the oldest extant lake in Europe. Boreas.

Karlović, I, Marković, T, Smith, A C, and Kanduč, T. 2022. Data on stable isotopic composition of δ18O and δ15N in nitrate in groundwater, and δ15N in solid matter in the Varaždin area, NW Croatia. Data in Brief, 108686.

Baker, J C A, Cintra, B B L, Gloor, M, Boom, A, Neill, D, Clerici, S, Leng, M J, Helle, G, and Brienen, R J W. 2022. The Changing Amazon Hydrological Cycle – Inferences from over 200 years of tree-ring oxygen isotope data. JGR Biosciences, 127.

Salgado, J, Trinh Anh Duc, Do Thu Nga, Panizzo, V N, Bass, A M, Ying Zheng, Taylor, S, Roberts, L R, Lacey, J H, Leng, M J, and McGowan, S. 2022. Urbanization and seasonality strengthens the CO2 capacity of the Red River Delta, Vietnam. Environment Research Letters, 17.

Marković, T, Karlović, I, Orlić, S, Kajan, K, and Smith, A C. 2022. Tracking the nitrogen cycle in a vulnerable alluvial system using a multi proxy approach: Case study Varaždin alluvial aquifer, Croatia. Science of The Total Environment (853),158632.

Roberts, L R, Do, N T, Panizzo, V, N, Taylor, S, Watts, M, Hamilton, E, McGowan, S, Trinh, D A, Leng, M J, and Salgado, J. 2022. In flux: Annual transport and deposition of suspended heavy metals and trace elements in the urbanised, tropical Red River Delta, Vietnam. Water Research, 224.

Jianxun, S, Smith, A C, Barnett, M J, Morgan, A, and Wynn, P M. 2022. Distinct Microbial Communities in the Soils, Waters, and Speleothems of a Hyperalkaline Cave System. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, 127 (9).

Roberts, L R, Holmes, J A, Horne D J, Leng M J, Sayer, C D, Timms R G O, Flowers, K, Blockley, S P M, and Kelly, A. 2022. Reconstruction of short-term storm surge-driven increases 1 in shallow coastal lake salinity using ostracod shell chemistry. Natural hazards.

Snelling, A M, Swann, G A, Pashley, V, Lacey, J H, Horstwood, M S A, and Leng, M J. 2022. Nutrient availability in the North Pacific region not primarily driven by climate through the Quaternary. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology.

Asrat, A, Baker, A, Duan, W, Leng, M J, Boomer, I, Akter, R, Mariethoz, G, Adleri, L, Jex, C N, Yadeta, M, and Wang, L. 2022. Stalagmite evidence for Early Holocene multidecadal hydroclimate variability in Ethiopia. Quaternary Research. doi:10.1017/qua.2022.29.

Sear, D A, Langdon, P G, Leng, M J, Edwards, M E, Heaton, T H E, Langdon, C T, and Leyland, J. 2022. Climate and human exploitation have regulated Atlantic salmon populations in the River Spey, Scotland, over the last 2000 years. The Holocene.

Johnson, A L A, Valentine, A M, Schone, B R, Leng, M J, and Goolaerts, S. 2022. Sclerochronological evidence of pronounced seasonality from the late Pliocene of the southern North Sea basin and its implications. Climate of the Past, 18, 1203-1229.

Wells, N S, Gooddy, D C, Reshid, M Y, Williams, P J, Smith, A C, and Eyre, B D. 2022. δ18O as a tracer of PO43− losses from agricultural landscapes. Journal of Environmental Management, 317.

Branscombe, T, Lee-Thorp, J, Schulting, R, and Leng, M J. 2022. Micromilling vs hand drilling in stable isotope analyses of incremental carbonates: The potential for δ13C contamination by embedding resin. Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry, 36.

Worne, S, Swann, G E A, Kender, S, Lacey, J H, and Leng, M J. 2022. Silicic acid cycling in the Bering Sea during the Mid-Pleistocene transition. Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology, 37, e2021PA004284.

Broadman, E, Kaufman, D, Anderson, R, Bogle, S, Ford, M, Fortin, D, Henderson, A C G, Lacey, J H, Leng, M J, McKay, N P, and Muñoz, S E. 2022. Reconstructing postglacial hydrologic and environmental change in the eastern Kenai Peninsula lowlands using proxy data and mass balance modelling. Quaternary Research, 1-26.

Reyes, D M, Hoogakker, B, Martínez﹣Méndez, G, Llanillo, P J, Grasse, P, Mohtadi, M, Mix, A, Leng, M J, Struck, U, McCorkle, D C, Troncoso, M, Gayo, E M, Lange, C B, Farias, L, Carhuapoma, W, Graco, M, Cornejo-D’Ottone, M, De Pol Holz, R, Fernandez, C, Narvaez, D, Vargas, C A, García-Araya, F, and Hebbeln, D. 2022. Isotopic characterization of water masses in the Southeast Pacific region: Paleoceanographic implications. JGR Oceans. 

Cañadas, F, Papineau, D, Leng, M J, and Li, C. 2022. Extensive primary production promoted the recovery of the Ediacaran Shuram excursion. Nature Communications, 13:148. 

Katrina Nilsson-Kerr, Pallavi Anand, Philip F. Sexton, Melanie J. Leng, Pothuri Diwakar Naidu (2022). Indian Summer Monsoon variability 140–70 thousand years ago based on multi-proxy records from the Bay of Bengal. Quaternary Science Reviews, 279, 107403.

2022

December

Congratulations to Louisa Matthews who successfully defended her PhD thesis entitled ‘Iron Age Palaeoenvironments of Northwest Scotland’. Louisa was supervised by Maarten van Hardenbroek, Helen Mackay and Andrew Henderson of Newcastle University and in partnership with Graeme Cavers of AOC Archaeology and Melanie Leng of BGS.

November

Congratulations to Dr Tansy Branscombe on successfully defending her thesis entitled Archaeological marine carbonates in northern Hokkaido, Japan: Methodology, chronology and palaeothermometry. Tansy was supervised by Professor Julia Lee-Thorp and Professor Rick Schulting (both University of Oxford) and working with Professor Melanie Leng (BGS). Tansy is now the Editorial Project Manager at BAR Publishing in Oxford, working with academic authors and editors to publish their research in the BAR series of archaeological monographs.

March

Congratulations to Dr Joanna Tindall on successfully defending her thesis entitled ‘Lacustrine oxygen isotopes as tracers of past climate change in NW Europe’. Joanna was supervised by Professor Jonathan Holmes (UCL) and Professor Ian Candy (Royal Holloway), working with Professor Melanie Leng (BGS). She is now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Nottingham.

April 2019: European Science Foundation

Melanie Leng was appointed to sit on the European Science Foundation College of external reviewers for a three year period.

March 2019: Isotopes in Biogenic Silica group

Jack Lacey was invited to be a convenor of the working group Isotopes in Biogenic Silica (IBiS).

The study of biogenic silica (silica deposited in plants, algae and animals) in Quaternary sediments is currently being revolutionised by technical advances in stable-isotope mass spectrometry, ICP–MS and ³²Si dating. Growing interest in the global biogeochemical cycle of silicon and its coupling with the carbon cycle is evident from an upsurge of papers, while a wide range of disciplines have begun to focus on processes involving biogenic silica in the modern environment, including:

• agronomy
• biogeochemical modelling
• ecology
• forestry
• geochemistry
• geomorphology
• hydrology
• limnology
• oceanography
• pedology
• physiology

2021

October 2021: congratulations to those who have received NEIF funding at the autumn 2021 meeting for the following research projects.

• 2456.1021 VNP Panizzo (Nottingham): Understanding long-term environmental impacts to inform sustainability in Lake Victoria, Kenya.
• 2457.1021 R Madgwick (Cardiff): When did transhumance start in Iberia? Reconciling δ18O, δ13C and 87Sr/86Sr isotope approaches to study sheep mobility.
• 2459.1021 D Magnone (Lincoln): Quantifying the relationship between sedimentary organic carbon storage and sedimentary geochemical composition using δ13C in two contrasting eastern England catchments.
• 2462.1021 V Ersek (Northumbria): Using coral skeletons to record groundwater nitrogen pollution of the marine environment in the Maldives: A pilot study.
• 2464.1021 SF Henley (Edinburgh): Determining the rates of nitrogen regeneration by Southern Ocean phytoplankton species through use of a 15N tracer method.
• 2465.1021 AM Tye (British Geological Survey): Understanding phosphorus sources and cycling in sediments from impacted river systems – a novel 206/207Pb and phosphate oxygen isotope approach.
• 2470.1021 P Anand (Open University): Late Pliocene and early Pleistocene Indian Summer Monsoon wind variability in response to climate.

June 2021: congratulations to those who have received NEIF funding at the Spring 2021 meeting for the following research projects.

• 2356.0321 D A Sear (Southampton): Reconstructing late Holocene hydroclimate variability in the tropical South Pacific using lake sediment archives and oxygen isotopes
• 2375.0321 B Hoogakker (HW Edinburgh): Lessons from the past: Deoxygenation of the ocean
• 2376.0221  I Boomer (Birmingham): Dolomite in Snowball Earth: the Port Askaig Formation
• 2381.0321 J C Rushton (BGS Keyworth): Dating diagenesis for CO2 storage through pore-scale isotope analysis
• 2384.0321 H J O’Regan (Nottingham): When did the cows come home? A multi-isotope exploration of local and regional grazing patterns in Bronze Age Lincolnshire
• 2398.0421 S Kender (Exeter): Oceanographic and biotic changes in Australia during Oceanic Anoxic Events
• 2411.0321 M A Maslin (UC London): Diatom biogenic silica oxygen isotope measurements of annual laminated diatomite beds from Ol Njorowa Gorge (Kenya) dated to first dispersal of Homo sapiens out of Africa
• 2414.0321 M van Hardenbroek (Newcastle): Iron Age Palaeoenvironments of NW Scotland
• 2415.0321 M Roffet-Salque (Bristol): Determining the routing of H from feed and water to ruminant enteric methane using a feeding experiment
• 2416.0421 M J Leng (Nottingham): Central Mediterranean rainfall and global marine circulation patterns during the Last Glacial and Holocene

2020

October 2020: congratulations to those who received NEIF funding at the Autumn 2020 meeting for the following research projects.

• IP2297-0920 Prof D C Gooddy: Understanding biogeochemical cycling in a newly constructed wetland for waste water treatment using nutrient isotopes
• IP2305-0920 Dr K Littler: Reconstructing the South Asian monsoon during the dynamic Pliocene
• IP2307-0920 Dr P M Wynn: The speleothem phosphate isotope record: establishing a new proxy for palaeotemperature
• IP2308-0920 Dr R A Staff: Reconstructing the strength of the East Asian monsoon across Termination I from varved Japanese lake sediment
• IP2311-0920 Dr J F Dean: Determining the source of methane hotspots in urban waterways.
• IP2314-0920 Dr M D Jones: Reconstructing lake levels and palaeohydrology from the middle–upper part of the Lake Lisan Formation, Dead Sea Basin, Jordan
• IP2315-0920 Dr P Anand: Late Pliocene and early Pleistocene Indian summer monsoon variability in response to climate
• IP2316-0920 Prof M J Leng: Investigating the onset and evolution of Lake Ohrid during the early Pleistocene

May 2020: congratulations to those who received NEIF funding at the Spring 2020 meeting for the following research projects.

• IP–2229–0520 Dr K Beck (Lincoln): Disentangling southern hemisphere climate and environmental interactions of the late Pleistocene
• IP–2232–0520 Dr K Edgar (Birmingham): What was the dominant driver(s) of the early Eocene hyperthermal events? New insights from a benthic foraminiferal record from the Indian Ocean (IODP Site U1514)
• IP–2236–0520 Dr S Engels (Birkbeck): Investigating and refining the use of oxygen isotopes from chironomid head capsule chitin to record past climatic changes
• IP–2237–0520 Prof P Dennis (East Anglia): RESOLVE
• IP–2242–0520 Dr M Frogley (Sussex): High-resolution responses to Holocene environmental shifts in the Balkans
• IP–2243–0520 Dr K Selby (York): Assessing the impact of current and future climate change on UK small lakes
• IP–2252–0520 Prof R Gehrels (York): Response of peatlands to future climate change: reconciling palaeoecological and experimental methods
• IP–2255–0520 Dr M Jones (Nottingham): Reconstructing lake levels and palaeohydrology from the Lake Lisan Formation, Jordan
• IP–2258–0520 Dr S Kender (Exeter): Understanding the causes and consequences of palaeoenvironmental change in the high latitudes during the Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event
• IP–2260–0520 Prof B Lomax (Nottingham): Inferring hydroclimate of subtropical Australia through the Holocene

March 2020: Richard Madgwick (University of Cardiff) and Angela Lamb have been awarded an AHRC grant (£247,577) entitled FEASTNET:

Feasting networks and Resilience at the end of the British Bronze Age. This project will explore responses to a deteriorating climate and trade collapse at the end of the Bronze Age in Britain. A major focus is the new social and economic networks that developed and how these made communities resilient in the face of turmoil. This will be achieved by employing a suite of scientific methods to analyse the very rich, but understudied sites known as middens. Multi-isotope analysis (strontium, sulphur, carbon, nitrogen and oxygen) will reveal where animals and humans came from and how agricultural production was maximised through different husbandry practices and landscape use. Project partners include Operation Nightingale, The Wiltshire Museum, The British Museum and Breaking Ground Heritage.

2019

November 2019: congratulations to those who have received EIF funding at the Autumn 2019 meeting for the following research projects.

• EK307–08/18 Dr C Rice (Southampton): Macroecological study of the field metabolic rates of marine fishes using otolith carbon stable isotopes
• IP–1939–1119 D Gooddy (BGS): A multinutrient isotope approach to understand the impact of water treatment on inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus in public water supplies
• IP–1942–1119 R Holdsworth (Durham): Fracture connectivity and fluid sourcing in the Cleveland Basin
• IP–1943–1119 M Jones (Nottingham): 2000 years of hydrological change in Africa: implications for future climate scenarios
• IP–1944–1119 J Lee-Thorp (Oxford): Sea surface temperature and hunter-gatherer marine resource use from marine carbonates in northern Japanese prehistory
• IP–1948–1119 S McGowan (Nottingham): Understanding long-term environmental conditions to inform sustainable aquaculture development in Lake Victoria, Kenya
• IP–1949–1119 H O’Regan (Nottingham): A multi-isotope study of human movement and diet in Middle Saxon East Anglia
• IP–1950–1119 V Peck (BAS): Reconstructing variability of the ‘cold water route’ through the late Pleistocene

June 2019: Melanie Leng, head of the Stable Isotope Facility and Chief Scientist for Environmental change, adaptation and resilience, has been awarded an MBE in this year’s Queen’s Birthday Honours List for services to environmental science. The list, which has been published annually since 1917, recognises those who have contributed to the British Empire. MBE, or Member of the British Empire, is bestowed upon those who have made a considerable contribution to the community through their line of work.

June 2019: the following NEIF-SC applications to the stable isotope facility at the BGS were awarded.

• IP–1901–0619 Dr K Adamson (Manchester Metropolitan): Reconstructing palaeoenvironmental conditions in the Egyptian Nile Valley from the Old Kingdom to present (pilot)
• IP–1910–1019 Dr A Henderson (Newcastle): Holocene climate evolution in Arctic Alaska and its link to Aleutian Low variability
• IP–1913–0619 Dr B Hoogakker (Heriot-Watt): Lessons from the past: deoxygenation of the ocean
• IP–1914–1619 Dr S Kender (Exeter): Deep sea biotic responses during Cretaceous Oceanic Anoxic Event (OAE) 2 in the southern high latitudes
• IP–1915–0619 Dr S Kender (Exeter): Oceanographic and vegetation changes across the Palaeocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum in NW Europe and the Arctic
• IP–1918–0619 Prof M Leng (Nottingham): Stable C isotope analyses coupled to XRF core scanning through a UK black shale giant
• IP–1924–0619 Dr J Pike (Cardiff): Holocene diatom and sponge spicule oxygen isotope ratios from the west Antarctic Peninsula: exploring seasonal and depth related isotope offsets using paired samples
• IP–1926–0619 Dr Z Shi (Birmingham): Changing shipping emissions: impact on sulphate aerosol in the marine atmosphere (CSEIA)
• IP–1927–0619 Prof G Shields (UCL): Paleoceanographic context of organic matter deposition on the Yangtze craton, South China during the Ediacaran Period
• IP–1929–0619 Dr M van Hardenbroek (Newcastle): Iron Age palaeoenvironments of north-west Scotland (pilot)

March 2019: Angela Lamb and Jane Evans, along with Richard Madgwick (University of Cardiff), have been awarded a British Academy/Leverhulme Trust small grant (supported by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the Caton-Thompson Fund), entitled ‘”Wet Feet”: developing sulphur isotope provenance methods to identify wetland inhabitants’. The project aims to refine our understanding of how sulphur isotopes can be used as an isotope fingerprinting tool for individuals living on Jurassic mudstones and/or wetland environments.

January 2019: congratulations to Melanie Leng for her contribution to the successful Australian Research Council grant: ‘East Australian climate extremes through the Holocene’.

The project aims are to document climate variability in eastern Australia over the Holocene (approximately the last 11 500 years) and seeks to develop Australia’s two highest-resolution Holocene climate records using novel techniques (including isotopes) to infer past rainfall, temperature and evaporation. In particular, the plan is to determine the frequency, duration and causes of megadroughts in eastern Australia, of which little is known. Expected project outcomes include improved decision-making capacity for natural resource management and planning.

Mel is a partner investigator with the University of Adelaide chief investigators, Dr John Tibby and Dr Jonathan Tyler.

December 2019: Suigetsu, sediment and silica: embarking on my PhD by Charlie Rex

Anyone who has started researching something new is well aware of the challenges involved: vast amounts of literature, creating sensible hypotheses and selecting a suitable methodology (among other hurdles!). For new PhD students, this can also involve a totally new setting, such as a new city, country, or continent. Thankfully I didn’t have to move continent, but I did make the move to Scotland and start fresh on a PhD topic that I found fascinating and unfamiliar in equal measure. Though this was daunting, I am incredibly fortunate to be surrounded by a multidisciplinary, multi-continental academic network who have helped me get off to a good start! Find out more about Charlie’s experience below.

More information

November 2019: Building capacity for archaeological science in Turkey by Emma Baysal and Holly Miller

Emma Baysal from Trakya University and Holly Miller of the University of Nottingham and BGS Visiting Research Fellow were awarded a Newton Advanced Fellowship. ‘Building Capacity for Sustainable Archaeological Science and Heritage in Turkey’ (NAFR1180204) promotes capacity building, education and training in the field of archaeological science in Turkey. This is the second in a series of three blogs that will discuss their initial three weeks of activities at BGS with guest researchers from Turkey.

More information

October 2019: BGS Wilding Group – every tree counts

The BGS Keyworth-based Wilding Group have been up and running for a few months now and over the course of a lunchtime each month we work on specific areas of our site to encourage wildlife and help increase biodiversity.

More information

October 2019: Newton Advanced Fellowship: BGS training programme week one by Emma Baysal et al.

Emma Baysal (Trakya University) and Holly Miller (University of Nottingham) were awarded a Newton Advanced Fellowship to promote capacity building, education and training in the field of archaeological science in Turkey. This is the first in a series of three blogs that will discuss their initial three weeks of activities at BGS, with guest researchers from Turkey.

More information

September 2019: Stable isotope mass spectrometer user group meeting 2019 by Rob Burton

The 15th SIMSUG meeting was hosted by the Organic Geochemistry Unit at the University of Bristol. SIMSUG offers a platform for innovations in stable isotope research methodology and analytical instrumentation to be communicated amongst members of the stable isotope community. Attendees at SIMSUG included delegates from research institutes, manufacturers and technical experts; each providing a unique contribution towards the wide-ranging spectrum of content.

More information

August 2019: Why we need a geo-observatory of Africa’s oldest lake by Melanie Leng

This summer, Melanie Leng (BGS’s Chief Scientist for Environmental Change Adaptation) attended a workshop in Dar es Saleem, Tanzania, with around 70 other scientists from 10 countries, with the aim to form a plan to create a palaeo Geo–Observatory in this region. The Geo–Observatory, in the form of a long sediment core, will contain information on past conditions in Lake Tanganyika and tropical East Africa. Here Melanie tells us about why we need to do research in this region and what happens next.

More information

March 2019: Homeward bound: last leg of the ORCHESTRA cruise (Part 4) by Carol Arrowsmith

We were at sea for around eight weeks on the RRS James Clark Ross, undertaking the ANDREXII transect. We set off from the Punta Arenas, Chile, calling in at the Falklands before crossing the Drake Passage to the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula at 60oS, and then out along over 3000 miles to the Indian Ocean at 30oE. Find out more from Carol below.

More information

May 2019: Talking environmental change and human impact at EGU19 by Dr Jack Lacey

Dr Jack Lacey from the BGS Stable Isotope Facility attended EGU from April 7–12. Today he tells us about his week and the research he presented…

More information

May 2019: Latest developments in methane isotope analysis by Andi Smith

Recent requirements for understanding methane formation processes has led to investment in a new stable isotope mass spectrometer by BGS. This instrument is specifically designed to analyse both carbon and hydrogen isotopes in water and gas samples and is perfectly set up to support large groundwater and soil gas surveys. As part of the launch of this equipment the stable isotope team including Prof. Melanie Leng and Dr Andi Smith went and presented the new instrumentation at European General Assembly last month.

More information

March 2019: Prehistoric Britons rack up food miles for feasts near Stonehenge

A collaboration between BGS (Angela Lamb, Jane Evans and Hilary Sloane) and scientists from Cardiff University, University of Sheffield and University College London has provided evidence of the earliest large-scale celebrations in Britain – with people and animals travelling hundreds of miles for prehistoric feasting rituals. The study, led by Dr Richard Madgwick of Cardiff University, is the most comprehensive to date and examined the bones of 131 pigs, the prime feasting animals, from four Late Neolithic (c. 2800-2400BC) complexes. Serving the world-famous monuments of Stonehenge and Avebury, the four sites – Durrington Walls, Marden, Mount Pleasant and West Kennet Palisade Enclosures – hosted the very first pan-British events, feasts that drew people and animals from across Britain. The isotope results show pig bones excavated from these sites were from animals raised as far away as Scotland, North East England and West Wales, as well as numerous other locations across the British Isles. The study, ‘Multi-isotope analysis reveals that feasts in the Stonehenge environs and across Wessex drew people and animals from throughout Britain’, was funded by the British Academy and NERC and is published in Science Advances.

More information

March 2019: Full steam ahead with the sampling on the RRS James Clark Ross: ORCHESTRA Part 3 by Carol Arrowsmith

We are now cruising along the 60oS latitude, having crossed the Drake Passage, passing Elephant Island (off the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula), between Coronation and Laurie Island and are now out in the Weddell Sea at approximately 23oW. This leg of the ORCHESTRA hydrographic/tracer section covers the northern rim of the Weddell Gyre and is called ANDREXII (Antarctic Deep Water Rates of Export). This leg was previously sampled 10 years ago so we are interested to see the difference global warming has made to the ocean. Carol is half way through a research cruise across the Weddell Sea as part of ORCHESTRA.

More information

March 2019: Tropical palaeoclimate meeting as temperatures break records in the UK by Heather Moorhouse

In 2018, the UK NERC-funded collaborators of the International Continental scientific Drilling Program – DeepCHALLA project met in Cambridge amidst a Siberian blast, known as the ‘Beast from the East’, as temperatures plummeted and ice and snow disrupted UK travel. In 2019 however, the scientists met in tropical Lancaster, during maximum temperature records for the month of February. It is predicted that weather events will be increasingly unpredictable, variable and extreme, and the temperature differences between our two meetings merely serves to highlight the future under climate change.

More information

March 2019: From Chile to the Falklands and beyond: ORCHESTRA Part 2 by Carol Arrowsmith

I left the UK last Saturday and flew to Punta Arenas in Chile. There we waited (with various, BAS, NOC and university colleagues) to board the RRS James Clark Ross; a few days later we departed for the Falkland Islands. On board our first task was to lash down all the equipment in the ship’s laboratories needed for our sampling and familiarise ourselves with the layout of the ship. We have been accompanied for most of the journey so far by a variety of birds and mammals, including magnificent black-browed albatross, that mostly just sit in the water surrounding the ship waiting for food (to upwell from beneath the ship).

More information

February 2019: Investigating the Southern Ocean: ORCHESTRA Part 1 by Carol Arrowsmith

In a few days I will be embarking on my leg of the major NERC project called ORCHESTRA (Ocean Regulation of Climate through Heat and Carbon Sequestration and Transport) to collect seawater samples for isotope analysis. My leg is called ANDREX II – Antarctic Deep Water Rates of Export (ANDREX), and is the second time this part of the ocean has been sampled. I will be boarding the RRS James Clark Ross in Punta Arenas and following a stop off in the Falklands will start sampling from the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula along the 60°S parallel and across the Southern Ocean to 30°E, before returning to the Falklands in mid April.

More information

February 2019: BGS and Heriot-Watt Partnership in Action: geochemistry and carbon burial at the BSRG AGM 2018 by Joe Emmings

In late December, Joe Emmings (BGS) and Tom Wagner (Heriot–Watt University) convened Geochemistry and Carbon Burial Sessions at the British Sedimentological Research Group (BSRG) AGM. Here Joe tells us about the conference and ongoing research in this area…

More information

February 2019: Can we use carbon isotopes to tell us about past levels of CO₂ in the atmosphere? by Barry Lomax and Melanie Leng

Dr Barry Lomax and Prof Melanie Leng are isotope geochemists who work on understanding how the isotopic composition of environmental materials can tell us about past environments. Here they blog about their new paper, available via open access in the premiere geochemistry journal (Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta), co–authored by Dr Janice Lake and Dr Phillip Jardine on the use of carbon isotopes in plant materials to predict atmospheric CO₂. The paper sets out to test this relationship to determine if it could be used as a tool for estimating changes in atmospheric CO₂ concentrations through geological time.

More information

2021

December 2021

Congratulations to Mr Alistair Morgan (Geography) on the successful defence of his masters by research thesis entitled: Phosphorous in caves: Phosphate-oxygen isotopes as a novel speleothem palaeothermometer. Alistair was supervised by Dr Peter Wynn and Dr Ben Surridge (Lancaster University) and Dr Andi Smith (BGS).

Congratulations to Dr Haydar Martinez Izquierdo Dyrzo (Geography) on the successful defence of his PhD thesis entitled: Exploring Holocene Lake Palaeoclimatic records in the Maya Northern Highlands and the central Mayab. Haydar was supervised by Professors Matthew Jones and Sarah Metcalfe (University of Nottingham) and Melanie Leng (BGS).

September 2021

Congratulations to Dr Linghan Zeng on the successful defence of his PhD thesis entitled: Anthropogenic impacts on shallow lake ecosystems in the middle Yangtze floodplain since the 19th century. Linghan was supervised by Melanie Leng (BGS) and Suzanne McGowan/George Swann (Geography, University of Nottingham).

August 2021

Congratulations to Dr Fuen Canadas Blasco who  successfully defender her PhD entitled: “Biogeochemistry of late Ediacaran organic-rich shales in South China”. Fuen was based at UCL and supervised by Prof Greham Shields and Prof Philip Pogge Von Strandmann. Prof Melanie Leng and Dr Andi Smith supported Fuen from NEIF.

March 2021

Congratulations to Blessing Chidimuro on the successful defence of her PhD thesis ‘A multi‐isotope, multi‐tissue study of diets in industrialised societies of 17th to 19th century England’.

Blessing was supervised by Michelle Alexander (University of York) and collaborated with Angela Lamb and Hilary Sloane (Stable Isotope Facility) on the isotope analysis of human dental calculus carbonate to investigate a potential new proxy for sugar consumption. Blessing is now a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Isotope Ecology/Archaeology based at the University of Reading.

2019

November 2019

Congratulations to Savannah Worne on the successful defence of her PhD entitled ‘Investigating Bering Sea oceanographic response to the Milankovitch orbital cycle climatic shift during the middle Pleistocene’. Savannah wrote her thesis by paper and these have been published so far:

• Worne, S, Kender, S, Swann, G E A, Leng, M J, and Ravelo, A C. 2019. Coupled climate and subarctic Pacific nutrient upwelling over the last 850 000 years. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Vol. 522, 87–97. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2019.06.028
• Kender, S, Ravelo, A C, Worne, S, Swann, G E A, Leng, M J, Asahi, H, Becker, J, Detlef, H, Aiello, I W, Andreasen D, and Hall, I R. 2018. Closure of the Bering Strait caused Mid–Pleistocene Transition cooling. Nature Communications, Vol. 9, 5386. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-07828-0
• Swann, G E A, Kendrick, C P, Dickson, A J, and Worne, S. 2018. Late Pliocene marine pCO2 reconstructions from the Subarctic Pacific Ocean. Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology. 33, 457–469.

Savannah was supervised at Nottingham by Profs George Swann and Sarah Metcalfe, at Exeter by Dr Sev Kender and undertook her isotope analysis at the BGS with Prof Melanie Leng.

June 2019

Congratulations to Elizabeth Atar on the successful defence of her PhD thesis entitled ‘Late Jurassic sedimentation in the boreal Tethyan seaway: climate modelling, geochemistry and petrography of the Kimmeridge Clay Formation.’

Climate exerts a strong influence on sedimentation. Understanding the processes behind the spatial and temporal heterogeneities in sedimentary successions can, therefore, be used to reconstruct climate processes in the geological past. Deposited across >1000 km in northwest Europe in the shallow (<200 m), epicontinental Laurasian Seaway, the Kimmeridge Clay Formation provides an exceptional opportunity to study climate processes and their effect on sedimentation at different latitudes through the late Jurassic (Kimmeridgian–Tithonian). This thesis presents independent climate modelling, sedimentological, and geochemical datasets from three time-equivalent sections, spanning one million years, in the northern and southern extents of the Laurasian Seaway (30–60°N palaeolatitude) in order to investigate climate dynamics and controls on sedimentation at different northern hemisphere latitudes in the Late Jurassic.

The climate modelling results yield two different hypotheses:

• HadCM3L indicates that an expanded Hadley Cell and migrated intertropical convergence zone resulted in tropical conditions over the Laurasian Seaway, whereby organic carbon-enrichment in sediments was promoted through enhanced nutrient supply resulting from continental weathering and erosion.
• FOAM suggests subtropical to temperate conditions prevailed and that organic carbon enrichment was driven by wind-driven upwelling of nutrient-rich water.

Sedimentological and geochemical analyses for the Ebberston 87 core, drilled in the Cleveland Basin (Yorkshire, UK), indicates depositional conditions fluctuated between three distinct states and that alternations of organic, carbon-, carbonate- and clay-rich mudstone and redox conditions were driven by the expansion/migration of the intertropical convergence zone.

Analysis of the Swanworth Quarry 1 core, drilled in the Wessex Basin (Dorset, UK), reveals that, although depositional energy differed between the Cleveland and Wessex basins, sedimentation in both basins was driven by the same, overarching tropical climate control.

Analysis of a third core, drilled in Adventdalen (Svalbard), demonstrates that organic, carbon-rich sedimentation occurred in a deltaic setting, which had a markedly higher depositional energy.

While the depositional environments in the northern and southern sectors of the Laurasian Seaway differed substantially, similarities between the three studied sections, namely cyclical deposition of terrestrial, organic, carbon- and detrital-rich sedimentation, integrated with published data from throughout the seaway, suggest a low-latitude, tropical influence on sedimentation and organic carbon enrichment across the entire Laurasian Seaway. Furthermore, the palaeogeographic setting of the Laurasian Seaway made the sedimentary system sensitive to subtle changes in weathering and water depths, resulting in distinct modes of sedimentation and biogeochemical cycling.

June 2019

Congratulations to Katrina Kerr on the successful defence of her PhD thesis entitled ‘Reconstructing the Indian summer monsoon response to global climate change’.

The Indian summer monsoon, a subsystem of the Asian monsoon, is one of Earth’s most dynamic expressions of oceanic–atmospheric–terrestrial processes affecting some of Earth’s most densely populated regions. Therefore, it is imperative to have a comprehensive understanding of the Indian summer monsoon in order to understand how its behaviour may be manifested by anthropogenic induced climate changes.

Reconstructing how the monsoon behaved in the past presents an opportunity to disentangle its sensitivities to a range of forcing parameters (e.g. ice volume) during periods of differing climatic states. However, understanding of how the Indian summer monsoon behaved in the past has been limited both spatially and temporally, further constrained by discrepancies among climate proxy records.

This work fills both a temporal and spatial gap in our knowledge of the past behaviour of the Indian summer monsoon. High-resolution (millennial to centennial scale) records of Indian summer monsoon-induced river runoff and surface freshening from the core convective region of the Indian summer monsoon, the northern Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea, have been generated from 70 000 to 140 000 years ago. These records provide an insight into how the Indian summer monsoon responded to the penultimate deglaciation (Termination II), the subsequent warmth of the Last Interglacial Period and ensuing oscillations between the warm interstadial and cold stadial periods of Marine Isotope Stage 5. These records are compared with both high- and low-latitude climate records in order to understand how the monsoon responded to changes in Earth’s internal climate system and the influence of external preconditioning

May 2019

Congratulations to Dr Stuart Young on the successful defence of his PhD thesis ‘The ecology of immune variation in wild house mice (Mus musculus domesticus)’.

Stuart was supervised by Jan Bradley (University of Nottingham) and collaborated with Angela Lamb (BGS) on stable isotope analysis. Stuart is now working as a programme officer for the IUCN Asian Wild Cattle Specialist Group based at Chester Zoo. A paper on Stuart’s work has just been published in Functional Ecology:

Taylor, C H, Young, S, Fenn, J, Lamb, A L, Lowe, A E, Poulin, B, MacColl, A D C, and Bradley, J E. 2019. Immune state is associated with natural dietary variation in wild mice Mus musculus domesticus. Functional Ecology, Vol. 33(8), 1425–1435. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1365-2435.13354