School of Earth and Environmental Sciences

Environmental Geochemistry

Stable isotopes, clay minerals, and trace metals serve as useful tracers of the cycle of materials through ecosystems, soils, and surface and ocean waters. Research projects in this field encompass the following topics:

• the use of boron isotopes as tracers of ocean pH (N.G. Hemming)
• Mg/Ca and oxygen isotopes in carbonate fossils as indicators of ocean temperature and salinity
  (S. Pekar)
• Reduced sulfur species in groundwater (Y. Zheng)
• Bioaccessibility of arsenic in food (Y. Zheng)
• Development of analytical methods for rapid and field analysis (Y. Zheng)
• The use of natural short-lived radionuclide tracers to study elemental cycling and accumulation
  (G. Stewart)
• The use of radionuclide tracers to monitor heavy metal sorption to mineral surfaces (A. Rouff)
• The use of synchrotron-based tools such as XAFS to determine molecular-scale metal-mineral interactions (A. Rouff)
• The role naturally occurring organics in contaminant sequestration (A. Rouff)
• Temperature effects of contaminant-mineral interactions (A. Rouff)
• Thermodynamic modelling of contaminant aqueous and solid-phase speciation (A. Rouff)