What is it about?
We applied high temperature pyrolysis technique to partition sediment organic carbon into labile (pyrolysis volatile) and inert (pyrolysis residue) carbon pools for AMS 14C dating analysis. Radiocarbon content of labile and inert organic carbon pools vary in different patterns, providing a new approach to examine the carbon cycling dynamics of active carbon pools in sediment organic carbon.
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Why is it important?
We find that radiocarbon contents of labile and inert organic carbon pools are overlapping in the weathering zone but significantly different in unweathered sediments. The high temperature pyrolysis technique with AMS radiocarbon dating analysis provides a sensitive proxy to define a weathering zone in geological sediments, to quantify the modern carbon percolation rate at different depths in unweathered sediments, and to potentially detect pollutant associated with modern carbon contamination in groundwater.
Perspectives
Applying the high temperature pyrolysis technique with AMS radiocarbon dating analysis to the critical zone stability study was a happy moment to me. I hope this application push the new technique one step forward in studying the organic carbon cycling dynamics in future including partitioning the aerosol in air and find-grained floating materials in river water into different carbon pools for AMS radiocarbon dating analyses.
Hong Wang
Illinois State Geological Survey, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Radiocarbon and Stable Carbon Isotopes of Labile and Inert Organic Carbon in the Critical Zone Observatory in Illinois, USA, Radiocarbon, May 2018, Cambridge University Press,
DOI: 10.1017/rdc.2018.31.
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