scholarly journals Sequential measurement of δ 15 N, δ 13 C and δ 34 S values in archaeological bone collagen at the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre (SUERC): A new analytical frontier

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (15) ◽  
pp. 1258-1266 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kerry L. Sayle ◽  
Christopher R. Brodie ◽  
Gordon T. Cook ◽  
W. Derek Hamilton
Keyword(s):  
Bone Collagen ◽  
Environmental Research ◽  
Research Centre ◽  
Sequential Measurement

scholarly journals AMS 14C Dating at the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre (SUERC) Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory

Radiocarbon ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
E Dunbar ◽  
G T Cook ◽  
P Naysmith ◽  
B G Tripney ◽  
S Xu
Keyword(s):  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Tooth Enamel ◽  
Sample Selection ◽  
Sample Pretreatment ◽  
Bone Collagen ◽  
Environmental Research ◽  
Research Centre ◽  
14C Dating ◽  
Commercial Activities ◽  
Main Emphasis

AbstractThis paper describes all the major procedures adopted by the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre (SUERC) Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory. This includes sample pretreatment, graphite production, accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) measurement, associated stable isotope measurements, data handling, and age calculations, but with the main emphasis being on the chemical pretreatment methods. All of the above enable the laboratory to provide a complete analytical service comprising advice on sample selection, preparation and analysis of samples, and Bayesian analysis of resulting 14C (and other) data. This applies to both our research and commercial activities. The pretreatment methods that we mainly focus on are used to remove contaminant carbon from a range of sample types or to isolate a particular chemical fraction from a sample prior to combustion/hydrolysis, graphitization, and subsequent AMS 14C measurement. The methods described are for bone (collagen extraction, with and without ultrafiltration), cremated bone, tooth enamel, charcoal, grain, carbon residues, shell, wood (including alpha-cellulose isolation), peat, sediments, textiles, fuel/biofuel, and forensic samples.

scholarly journals Assessment of Infinite-Age Bones from the Upper Thames Valley, UK, as 14C Background Standards

Radiocarbon ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 54 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 845-853
Author(s):  
G T Cook ◽  
T F G Higham ◽  
P Naysmith ◽  
F Brock ◽  
S P H T Freeman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Background Correction ◽  
Bone Collagen ◽  
Environmental Research ◽  
Research Centre ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Younger Age ◽  
Chemistry Laboratories ◽  
Good Agreement

It is becoming increasingly clear that in order to generate accurate radiocarbon dates for bone collagen samples it is important to determine a sample-specific background correction to account for the greater complexity and higher number of steps in the pretreatment chemistry of this material. To provide suitable samples for the14C community, 7 bone samples were obtained from contexts within British gravel quarries, which according to other dating techniques or stratigraphic information, should be of infinite age with respect to14C. The bones were analyzed at the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit (ORAU) and the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre (SUERC) to determine their suitability. In this paper, we show that 6 of the samples were indistinguishable from background. Both institutions measured finite ages for sample 387 from Oxey Mead that were statistically indistinguishable. Further work is required to establish whether this is because the bone was intrusive and of a younger age than expected or whether it is contaminated either postdepositionally or in the laboratory. We favor the former explanation because (1) the 2 chemistry laboratories use very different pretreatment schemes, (2) collagen yields were high, and (3) the laboratories produced ages that are in good agreement. The 6 “greater than” age samples will be made available to14C laboratories to be used as background standards.

scholarly journals Assessment of Infinite-Age Bones from the Upper Thames Valley, UK, as 14C Background Standards

Radiocarbon ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 54 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 845-853 ◽  
Author(s):  
G T Cook ◽  
T F G Higham ◽  
P Naysmith ◽  
F Brock ◽  
S P H T Freeman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Background Correction ◽  
Bone Collagen ◽  
Environmental Research ◽  
Research Centre ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Younger Age ◽  
Chemistry Laboratories ◽  
Good Agreement

It is becoming increasingly clear that in order to generate accurate radiocarbon dates for bone collagen samples it is important to determine a sample-specific background correction to account for the greater complexity and higher number of steps in the pretreatment chemistry of this material. To provide suitable samples for the 14C community, 7 bone samples were obtained from contexts within British gravel quarries, which according to other dating techniques or stratigraphic information, should be of infinite age with respect to 14C. The bones were analyzed at the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit (ORAU) and the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre (SUERC) to determine their suitability. In this paper, we show that 6 of the samples were indistinguishable from background. Both institutions measured finite ages for sample 387 from Oxey Mead that were statistically indistinguishable. Further work is required to establish whether this is because the bone was intrusive and of a younger age than expected or whether it is contaminated either postdepositionally or in the laboratory. We favor the former explanation because (1) the 2 chemistry laboratories use very different pretreatment schemes, (2) collagen yields were high, and (3) the laboratories produced ages that are in good agreement. The 6 “greater than” age samples will be made available to 14C laboratories to be used as background standards.

scholarly journals The concept of socio-environmental transformations in prehistoric and archaic societies in the Holocene: An introduction to the special issue

The Holocene ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (10) ◽  
pp. 1517-1530 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johannes Müller ◽  
Wiebke Kirleis
Keyword(s):  
Collaborative Research ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Environmental Research ◽  
Research Centre ◽  
Detailed Data ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Archaeological Methods ◽  
Temporal And Spatial

Transformations of human societies and environments are closely interwoven. Due to improved possibilities of paleoecological reconstruction and archaeological methods, we are now in a position to empirically collect detailed data from a variety of records. The Collaborative Research Centre 1266 ‘Scales of Transformation’ has developed a concept in which both deductive and inductive transformation dimensions are compared on different temporal and spatial scales. This concept includes the connection between the environmental and social spheres, which are often inseparable. Accordingly, a holistic principle of socio-environmental research is developed, which is exemplified by the contributions to this special issue of The Holocene.

scholarly journals Removing chromium and lead metals using phytoremediation technique

2018 ◽  
Vol 162 ◽  
pp. 05004
Author(s):  
Riyad Al-Anbari ◽  
Abdul-Hameed Al-Obaidy ◽  
Mahmoud Al-Khafaji ◽  
Tiba Al-Imari
Keyword(s):  
Water Desalination ◽  
Environmental Research ◽  
Nerium Oleander ◽  
Research Centre ◽  
Construction Engineering ◽  
University Of Technology ◽  
Engineering Department ◽  
Cr Concentration ◽  
June July ◽  
The University

Phytoremediation technique uses plants parts to remove, extract, and absorb heavy or toxic matter from soil and water. In the present study, Catharanthusroseus (Periwinkle) and Nerium Oleander (Oleander) were used for removing Chromium (Cr) and Lead (Pb) metals. These plant species were seeded in polyethylene pots containing 8kg of soil. Each pot was irrigated with wastewater for four months (May, June, July and August) and accumulation of the considered metals was analyzed after every month for leaf, stem and root by using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (AAS). This experimental work was carried out in the laboratories of Water Desalination Researches Unit - Building and Construction Engineering Department and Environmental Research Centre at the University of Technology in Baghdad City, Iraq. The concentration of Cr was found to be increased with time. High Cr concentration, 20.34 mg/kg, was recorded at August in leaf of Periwinkle and 19.61 mg/kg in root of Oleander in case of using 100% wastewater (WW). While, for Pb, the maximum concentration, 22 mg/kg, was recorded in June in leaf of Periwinkle and 19.5 mg/kg in steam of Oleander. Accordingly, Oleander has the maximum removal efficiency.

Insights into modelling of soil organic carbon from Irish grassland sites using ECOSSE model

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alina Premrov ◽  
Jesko Zimmermann ◽  
Stuart Green ◽  
Reamonn Fealy ◽  
Matthew Saunders
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Soil Organic Carbon ◽  
Grassland Management ◽  
Environmental Research ◽  
Research Centre ◽  
Identification System ◽  
Site Specific ◽  
Stocking Rates ◽  
Soc Stocks

<p><strong>Abstract</strong></p><p>Grassland represents the dominant land use in Ireland, and the estimation of soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks and changes for Irish grasslands requires further improvements. This study uses the ECOSSE 6.2b process-based model in site-specific mode (Smith et al., 2010) to predict SOC stocks and changes associated with different grassland management practices. The work presented here aims to provide preliminary insights into SOC modelling procedures. Five Irish sites under different grassland management were selected from the 2009 LUCAS SOC database (JRC, 2018). Due to the lack of repeated SOC measurements over time, the initial SOC input values (required for the simulation initialisation) were assigned from the Irish NSDB database (EPA, 2007). This was done based on the site-specific information from both databases such as distance and matching land-use. The initial SOC values from the NSDB were assigned to 2002 (i.e. the start of simulation). Information on management was obtained from the Irish Integrated Administration and Control System database,LPIS (Zimmermann et al., 2016b), climate data were obtained from MÉRA (Met Éireann, 2018) and atmospheric N deposition from http://www.emep.int (Premrov et al. 2019). Fertilisation inputs were adapted from the literature and categorised based on stocking rates derived from Green et al. (2016). The 2009 yearly averaged SOC predicted values were compared to LUCAS measured SOC across five sites (r<sup>2 </sup>= 0.06), showing over- and under-estimation of simulated SOC, which could be due to potential poor matching NSDB and LUCAS data. This result indicates that the repeated SOC field-measurements over the time are needed for proper model-parameterisation. This was further supported by the observed strong relationship between initial SOC inputs and ECOSSE predicted SOC (r<sup>2</sup> = 0.85) indicating the high sensitivity of model SOC predictions to the initial SOC inputs.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Acknowledgements</strong></p><p>SOLUM project is funded under the Irish EPA Research programme 2014-2020. Thanks go to Dr Marta Dondini (U. Aberdeen) and Dr Rowan Fealy (Maynooth U.) for their support.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Literature</strong></p><p>EPA, 2007. National Soils Database (NSDB). Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Ireland.</p><p>Green, S., et.al., 2016. Cattle stocking rates estimated in temperate intensive grasslands with a spring growth model derived from MODIS NDVI time-series. Int. J. Appl. Earth Obs. & Geoinfo. 52, 166-174.</p><p>JRC, 2018. LUCAS 2009 TOPSOIL data, European Soil data Centre. Joint Research Centre. European Commission.</p><p>Met Éireann, 2018. MÉRA: Met Éireann Re-Analysis – Climate Re-analysis.</p><p>Premrov, A., et al., 2019. Biogeochemical modelling of soil organic carbon-insights into the processing procedures of selected atmospheric input data: Part II. IGRM2019.UCD. Dublin.</p><p>Smith, J., et al., 2010. ECOSSE. User Manual.</p><p>Zimmermann, J., et al., 2016. The Irish Land-Parcels Identification System (LPIS). Experiences in ongoing and recent environmental research and land cover mapping. Biol. & Environm. Proceedings RIA 116B, 53-62.</p>

scholarly journals Capabilities of the New SUERC 5MV AMS Facility for 14C Dating

Radiocarbon ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
S Xu ◽  
R Anderson ◽  
C Bryant ◽  
G T Cook ◽  
A Dougans ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ion Source ◽  
Negative Ion ◽  
Environmental Research ◽  
Research Centre ◽  
Performance Tests ◽  
14C Dating ◽  
Routine Measurement ◽  
Consensus Values ◽  
Accelerator Mass Spectrometer ◽  
Routine Basis

A new National Electrostatic Corporation (NEC) 5MV accelerator mass spectrometer became operational at the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre (SUERC) in July 2002. It has 2 Cs sputter negative ion sources: a 134-sample source (S1) for the routine measurement of all species, and a hybrid source (S2) with 40 spaces for radiocarbon measurements with either graphite or CO2 samples. A number of performance tests on graphite samples have been carried out on both sources. A precison of better than 0.3% is feasible for modern samples on a routine basis. The 14C background of the machine and the graphite preparation process blank are 0.04 ± 0.01 and 0.16 ± 0.05 pMC, respectively, indicating that 14C dating back to ~50 kyr BP is possible. The normalized 14C values for a series of reference materials agree well with the IAEA, TIRI, and FIRI consensus values. Routine measurement of 14C has been underway since May 2003. Preliminary results of performance tests on the CO2 gas ion source are also reported.

scholarly journals Weather model verification using Sodankylä mast measurements

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Markku Kangas ◽  
Laura Rontu ◽  
Carl Fortelius ◽  
Mika Aurela ◽  
Antti Poikonen
Keyword(s):  
Weather Forecasting ◽  
Longwave Radiation ◽  
Model Verification ◽  
Environmental Research ◽  
Research Centre ◽  
Cold Bias ◽  
Finnish Meteorological Institute ◽  
Radiation Fluxes ◽  
Weather Model ◽  
Nwp Model

Abstract. Sodankylä, in the heart of Arctic Research Centre of the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI ARC) in northern Finland, is an ideal site for atmospheric and environmental research in the boreal and sub-Arctic zone. With temperatures ranging from −50 to +30 °C, it provides a challenging testing ground for numerical weather forecasting (NWP) models as well as weather forecasting in general. An extensive set of measurements has been carried out in Sodankylä for more than 100 years. In 2000, a 48 m-high micrometeorological mast was erected in the area. In this article, the use of Sodankylä mast measurements in NWP model verification is described. Starting in 2000, with the NWP model HIRLAM and Sodankylä measurements, the verification system has now been expanded to include comparisons between 12 NWP models and seven measurement masts, distributed across Europe. A case study, comparing forecasted and observed radiation fluxes, is also presented. It was found that three different radiation schemes, applicable in NWP model HARMONIE-AROME, produced somewhat different downwelling longwave radiation fluxes during cloudy days, which however did not change the overall cold bias of the predicted screen-level temperature.

scholarly journals Weather model verification using Sodankylä mast measurements

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 577-598
Author(s):  
M. Kangas ◽  
L. Rontu ◽  
C. Fortelius ◽  
M. Aurela ◽  
A. Poikonen
Keyword(s):  
Weather Forecasting ◽  
Model Verification ◽  
Environmental Research ◽  
Wave Radiation ◽  
Research Centre ◽  
Cold Bias ◽  
Finnish Meteorological Institute ◽  
Radiation Fluxes ◽  
Weather Model ◽  
Nwp Model

Abstract. Sodankylä, in the heart of Arctic Research Centre of the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI ARC) in northern Finland, is an ideal site for atmospheric and environmental research in the boreal and sub-arctic zone. With temperatures ranging from −50 to +30 °C, it provides a challenging testing ground for numerical weather forecasting (NWP) models as well as weather forecasting in general. An extensive set of measurements has been carried out in Sodankylä for more than 100 years. In 2000, a 48 m high micrometeorological mast was erected in the area. In this article, the use of Sodankylä mast measurements in NWP model verification is described. Started in 2000 with NWP model HIRLAM and Sodankylä measurements, the verification system has now been expanded to include comparisons between 12 NWP models and seven measurement masts. A case study, comparing forecasted and observed radiation fluxes, is also presented. It was found that three different radiation schemes, applicable in NWP model HARMONIE-AROME, produced during cloudy days somewhat different downwelling long-wave radiation fluxes, which however did not change the overall cold bias of the predicted screen-level temperature.

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