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Research Projects

Vanadium isotopes fingerprinting low oxygen environments

We have been developing vanadium isotopes in low temperature environrments including seawater sediments. It is likely that vanadium will show large isotope shifts under low oxygen conditions because of oxidation state changes. Importantly, vanadium would be the first low oxygen proxy which would be important to understand non-zero oxygen contents in the global ocean.
Collaborators:
Sune Nielsen | Natascha Riedinger | Dalton Hardisty | Florian Scholtz

Thallium isotopes to track marine Mn-oxide burial

We plan to explore the potential of the thallium isotopes to track changes in widespread marine Mn-oxide burial. Examining the Tl isotope systematics throughout Earth history with the goal of constraining change in the global Mn-oxide burial through time. The Tl isotope composition of seawater depends critically on the global deposition of Mn-oxides, which makes Tl isotopes uniquely suited to answer one of the most fundamental questions of change in ocean oxygenation and evolution.
Collaborators:
Sune Nielsen | Ariel Anbar | Benjamin Gill | Noah Planvsky | Chris Reinhard | Seth Young

Marine biogeochemistry during Phanerozoic climatic events

Understanding the timing and mechanisms underpining major climte events is important to constrain as they might provide insight into future climate change. Many of these events are associated with a significant decrease in oxygen and those that have been analyzed show significant ecological perturbations/shifts due to changes in bioessential metal concentrations. This research is interdisiplinary and involves inorganic geochemistry, organic geochemistry and paleontology.
Collaborators:
Benjamin Gill | Seth Young | Gordon Love | Chis Lowery | G.S. Lynn Soreghan