Dr Andrew Smith

Andrew Smith’s Biography

• 2015 – ongoing : Stable Isotope Geochemist, NERC Isotope Geosciences Facility, British Geological Survey
• 2015 –2015 : Stable Isotope Apprentice, NERC Isotope Geosciences Facility, British Geological Survey
• 2010 –2014 : PhD from the University of Lancaster entitiled: Speleothem Climate Capture – A Holocene Reconstruction of Northern Iberian Climate and Environmental Change

Research interests

• The use of light stable isotopes as tracers to help us understand nutrient cycling and the impact of pollution on modern environments.
• Developing instrumentation for the automated high precision dual hydrogen and carbon isotope analysis of methane. With the aim of identifying methane origins, flow pathways, mixing dynamics and potential pollution impacts within subsurface aquifers. Also interested in understanding the role methane forming microbes play in the C cycle with the aim of characterising major sources of future methane pollution into the atmosphere.
• Developing methods for the tracing of phosphorus through soil and aquatic environments, with special focus on biological fractionations of phosphate oxygen isotopes in nature.
• Light stable isotope geochemistry focused on understanding fractionations in oxygen and carbon isotopes during organic matter (both diatoms and vascular plants) decay and sedimentation.
• Quaternary and especially Holocene palaeoclimate reconstruction using speleothem deposits, focusing on how changes in the North Atlantic Ocean are transmitted to atmospheric systems and terrestrial records.
• Developing techniques that will allow for the analysis of phosphate oxygen isotopes from minimal amounts of speleothem carbonate.
• The monitoring of the cave climate system particularly focused on understanding how changes in cave ventilation can influence drip water chemistry over a range of timescales.

Current projects and collaborations

ORCID: 0000-0002-7658-6234

Published outputs
NERC Open Research Archive – Dr Andrew C Smith
Google Scholar
Research Gate

Key papers

• Atsawawaranunt, K, Comas-Bru, L, Mozhdehi, S A. et al. 2018. The SISAL database: a global resource to document oxygen and carbon isotope records from speleothems. Earth System Science Data, 10, 1687-1713.
• George, T S, Giles, C D, Menezes-Blackburn, D. et al. 2017. Organic phosphorus in the terrestrial environment: a perspective on the state of the art and future priorities. Plant and Soil, 427 (1-2), 191-208.
• Granger, S J, Yang, Y, Pfahler, V, Hodgson, C, Smith, A C, Le Cocq, K, Collins, A, L, Blackwell, M S A, and Howden, N J K. 2018. The stable oxygen isotope ratio of resin extractable phosphate derived from fresh cattle faeces. Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry, 32(9), 703-710.
• Smith, A C, Kendrick, C P, Moss-Hayes, V L, Vane, C H, and Leng, M J. 2017. Carbon isotope alteration during the thermal maturation of non-flowering plant species representative of those found within the geological record. Rapid Commun. Mass Spectrom., 31: 21–26.
• Smith, A C, Leng, M J, Swann, G E A, Barker, P A, Mackay, A W, Ryves, D B, Sloane, H J, Chenery, S R N, and Hems, M. 2016. An experiment to assess the effects of diatom dissolution on oxygen isotope ratios. Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry, 30, 293-300.
• Smith, A C, Wynn, P M, Barker, P A, Leng, M J, Noble, S R, and Tych, W. 2016. North Atlantic forcing of moisture delivery to Europe throughout the Holocene. Scientific Reports, 6, 24745
• Smith, A C, Wynn, P M, Barker, P A, Leng, M J, Noble, S, and Stott, A. 2016. Cave monitoring and the potential for palaeoclimate reconstruction from Cueva de Asiul, Cantabria (N. Spain). International Journal of Speleology, 41(1), 1-9.
• Smith, A C, Wynn, P M, Barker, P A, and Leng, M J. 2015. Drip water electrical conductivity as an indicator of cave ventilation at the event scale. Science of the Total Environment, 532, 517-527
• Smith, A C, Wynn, P M, and Barker, P A. 2013. Natural and anthropogenic factors which influence aerosol distribution in Ingleborough Show Cave, UK. International Journal of Speleology, 42(1), 49-56.
• Dredge, J, Fairchild, I J, Harrison, R M, Fernandez-Cortes, A, Sanchez-Moral, S, Jurado, V, Gunn, J, Smith, A C, Spötl, C, Mattey, D, Wynn, P, and Grassineau, N. 2013. Cave aerosols: distribution and contribution to speleothem geochemistry. Quaternary Science Reviews, 63, 23-41.

Boards and committees

• 2018 – Chief Scientist British Cave Monitoring Centre
• 2018 – Trustee and board member: British Cave Research Association