Studying Past Atmospheric CO2 Concentrations Using Mass Spectrometer Analysis of Foraminifera-Bound Organic Matter
Although research has been done to analyze the δ\(^{13}\)C of bulk sediment matter and phytoplankton biomarkers for pCO\(_{2}\) reconstruction, little is known about the reliability of using foraminifera microfossils for this purpose, since the quantity of organic matter bound within these microfoss...
Main Author: | |
---|---|
Other Authors: | , |
Format: | Bachelor Thesis |
Language: | English |
Published: |
2015
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp01sj139428v |
id |
ftprincetonuniv:oai:dataspace.princeton.edu:88435/dsp01sj139428v |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftprincetonuniv:oai:dataspace.princeton.edu:88435/dsp01sj139428v 2023-05-15T17:35:40+02:00 Studying Past Atmospheric CO2 Concentrations Using Mass Spectrometer Analysis of Foraminifera-Bound Organic Matter Cannon, Joan Sigman, Daniel Bender, Michael 2015-05-05 33 pages http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp01sj139428v en_US eng http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp01sj139428v Princeton University Senior Theses 2015 ftprincetonuniv 2022-04-10T20:57:18Z Although research has been done to analyze the δ\(^{13}\)C of bulk sediment matter and phytoplankton biomarkers for pCO\(_{2}\) reconstruction, little is known about the reliability of using foraminifera microfossils for this purpose, since the quantity of organic matter bound within these microfossils is extremely small and no operative combustion system has had the capability of analyzing such limited samples of foraminifera-bound organic matter (Maslin et al. 1996; Al-Roussan et al. 2004). The Sigman Lab has adopted the online Dumas combustion system based approach of Polissar et al. 2009 to build a system capable of measuring nanomolar quantities of organic carbon from core material found in ~0.1 mg of picked foraminifera. The goal of the research presented in this thesis is to determine the carbon isotope compositions of the organic matter bound within the Globigerinoides ruber foraminifera microfossil species from two cores, VM23-110A and ODP999A, in the tropical North Atlantic in order to investigate foraminifera-bound organic matter (FBOM) as a possible proxy for reconstructing atmospheric CO\(_{2}\) concentrations in the geologic past. In VM23-110A, the δ\(^{13}\)C of FBOM is elevated by ~2‰ during the last glacial maximum, which is consistent with the δ\(^{13}\)C of FBOM responding to the lower atmospheric CO\(_{2}\) concentration of the ice age. However, at ODP Site 999A, the δ\(^{13}\)C of FBOM is ~1‰ lower during the last ice age, which may be due to previously undocumented environmental conditions at this Caribbean site, such as stronger equatorial upwelling. Alternatively, it may indicate a significant sensitivity of G. ruber FBOM δ\(^{13}\)C to some factor other than surface water CO\(_{2}\) concentration. Bachelor Thesis North Atlantic DataSpace at Princeton University |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
DataSpace at Princeton University |
op_collection_id |
ftprincetonuniv |
language |
English |
description |
Although research has been done to analyze the δ\(^{13}\)C of bulk sediment matter and phytoplankton biomarkers for pCO\(_{2}\) reconstruction, little is known about the reliability of using foraminifera microfossils for this purpose, since the quantity of organic matter bound within these microfossils is extremely small and no operative combustion system has had the capability of analyzing such limited samples of foraminifera-bound organic matter (Maslin et al. 1996; Al-Roussan et al. 2004). The Sigman Lab has adopted the online Dumas combustion system based approach of Polissar et al. 2009 to build a system capable of measuring nanomolar quantities of organic carbon from core material found in ~0.1 mg of picked foraminifera. The goal of the research presented in this thesis is to determine the carbon isotope compositions of the organic matter bound within the Globigerinoides ruber foraminifera microfossil species from two cores, VM23-110A and ODP999A, in the tropical North Atlantic in order to investigate foraminifera-bound organic matter (FBOM) as a possible proxy for reconstructing atmospheric CO\(_{2}\) concentrations in the geologic past. In VM23-110A, the δ\(^{13}\)C of FBOM is elevated by ~2‰ during the last glacial maximum, which is consistent with the δ\(^{13}\)C of FBOM responding to the lower atmospheric CO\(_{2}\) concentration of the ice age. However, at ODP Site 999A, the δ\(^{13}\)C of FBOM is ~1‰ lower during the last ice age, which may be due to previously undocumented environmental conditions at this Caribbean site, such as stronger equatorial upwelling. Alternatively, it may indicate a significant sensitivity of G. ruber FBOM δ\(^{13}\)C to some factor other than surface water CO\(_{2}\) concentration. |
author2 |
Sigman, Daniel Bender, Michael |
format |
Bachelor Thesis |
author |
Cannon, Joan |
spellingShingle |
Cannon, Joan Studying Past Atmospheric CO2 Concentrations Using Mass Spectrometer Analysis of Foraminifera-Bound Organic Matter |
author_facet |
Cannon, Joan |
author_sort |
Cannon, Joan |
title |
Studying Past Atmospheric CO2 Concentrations Using Mass Spectrometer Analysis of Foraminifera-Bound Organic Matter |
title_short |
Studying Past Atmospheric CO2 Concentrations Using Mass Spectrometer Analysis of Foraminifera-Bound Organic Matter |
title_full |
Studying Past Atmospheric CO2 Concentrations Using Mass Spectrometer Analysis of Foraminifera-Bound Organic Matter |
title_fullStr |
Studying Past Atmospheric CO2 Concentrations Using Mass Spectrometer Analysis of Foraminifera-Bound Organic Matter |
title_full_unstemmed |
Studying Past Atmospheric CO2 Concentrations Using Mass Spectrometer Analysis of Foraminifera-Bound Organic Matter |
title_sort |
studying past atmospheric co2 concentrations using mass spectrometer analysis of foraminifera-bound organic matter |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp01sj139428v |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_relation |
http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp01sj139428v |
_version_ |
1766134897746903040 |