Organic Geochemistry Unit

Ex-OGU PhD student Alice Charteris has published her PhD thesis via Springer. This thesis presents innovative research on soil nitrogen cycling and nitrate leaching with a view to improving soil management! Congratulations Alice! 🎉

Link here: https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783030310561

OGU in BBC news

Prehistoric babies fed animal milk in bottles Prehistoric babies were bottle-fed with animal milk more than 3,000 years ago, according to new evidence.

To mark the 50th anniversary of when the Apollo 11 lunar samples arrived in Bristol, we invite you to an evening of celebrations showcasing past & present research around space exploration. Speakers will be announced soon but tickets can be obtained NOW!

Stay tuned for more details!

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/apollo-50-years-on-tickets-64413846549

Apollo 50 years on… The Apollo 11 mission landed on the Moon on July 20, 1969, enabling the first man to walk on its surface the next day on the 21st of July.The mission returned to Earth a few days later, bringing back safely the astronauts and a precious load of lunar rocks. On 23rd October, some of these lunar sampl...

Exciting new PhD studentship with Dr Mélanie Roffet-Salque at Bristol to elucidate water metabolism in ruminants. Application deadline is the 1st of July!

More details here: https://tinyurl.com/yxz5szjh or email [email protected]!

PhD studentship in Biogeochemistry: Elucidating Water Metabolism in Ruminant Animals Using Compound-Specific Hydrogen Isotope Approaches at University of Bristol on FindAPhD.com

We are into the last week of registration for BOGS2018, not signed up yet? Do so here: https://www.bristol.ac.uk/chemistry/research/ogu/bogs_ogu50.html

BOGS & OGU50 | School of Chemistry | University of Bristol BOGS 2018 will take place from Thursday 12th to Friday 13th July, 2018 and will be hosted by the Organic Geochemistry Unit (OGU), School of Chemistry, University of Bristol. 2018 will mark the 30th anniversary of the first meeting of the British Organic Geochemistry Society at Bangor University so w...

We've had to start filling up the other side!

BOGS2018 conference meal will be at ZaZa Bazaar, should be enough choice for everybody!

Za Za Bazaar - World Banquet & Bar - Buffet Restaurant in Bristol Welcome to ZA ZA BAZAAR World Banquet & Bar, the fixed price buffet dining restaurant located at Bristol’s harbourside, with an amazing variety of global cuisine.

Registration for BOGS 2018 is open for 1 month, it's going to be a good one, information and registration here: https://www.bristol.ac.uk/chemistry/research/ogu/bogs_ogu50.html

BOGS & OGU50 | School of Chemistry | University of Bristol BOGS 2018 will take place from Thursday 12th to Friday 13th July, 2018 and will be hosted by the Organic Geochemistry Unit (OGU), School of Chemistry, University of Bristol. 2018 will mark the 30th anniversary of the first meeting of the British Organic Geochemistry Society at Bangor University so w...

Are you interested in the hydrological and biogeochemical consequences of warming? Then consider submitting to Goldschmidt Session 11f (co-convened by Gordon Inglis). Welcoming submissions from both the modern AND paleo community.

Goldschmidt will be held between the 12th and 17th of August, 2018 in Boston (USA) and the abstract deadline is March 30th (23.59 EST).

New paper led by Gordon Inglis (feat. David Naafs, Richard Evershed, Rich Pancost) has been published online in GCA.

This paper investigates the distribution of bacterial-derived hopanoids in a global peat database (> 395 samples). The authors show that hopanoid stereochemistry is strongly influenced by the acidic environment and may be a useful proxy for assessing past changes in pH.

These findings also demonstrate the potential of geohopanoids to provide unique new insights into understanding depositional environments and interpreting terrestrial organic matter sources in the geological record.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016703718300036

Distributions of geohopanoids in peat: Implications for the use of hopanoid-based proxies in natural archives - ScienceDirect Geochimica et Cosmochimica ActaVolume 224, 1 March 2018, Pages 249-261Distributions of geohopanoids in peat: Implications for the use of hopanoid-based proxies in natural archivesAuthor links open overlay panelGordon N.InglisabB. David A.NaafsabYanhongZhengcErin L.McClymontdRichard P.EvershedabRicha...

New paper led by former OGU-member Y. Zheng and featuring David Naafs and Rich Pancost demonstrating that atmospheric connections with the North Atlantic enhanced the deglacial warming in northeast China. This paper uses the recently developed peat-specific temperature calibration for brGDGTs and samples from the long-continuos Hani peat core from NE China.

https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/geology/article/516672/atmospheric-connections-with-the-north-atlantic

Atmospheric connections with the North Atlantic enhanced the deglacial warming in northeast China | Geology | GeoScienceWorld Yanhong Zheng, Richard D. Pancost, Xiaodong Liu, Zhangzhang Wang, B.D.A. Naafs, Xiaoxun Xie, Zhao Liu, Xuefeng Yu, Huan Yang; Atmospheric connections with the North Atlantic enhanced the deglacial warming in northeast China. Geology doi: https://doi.org/10.1130/G39401.1

New paper in Analytical Chemistry led by OGU PhD student Emmanuelle Casanova and featuring Tim Knowles & Richard Evershed.

The paper is entitled: “Use of a 700 MHz NMR Microcryoprobe for the Identification and Quantification of Exogenous Carbon in Compounds Purified by Preparative Capillary Gas Chromatography for Radiocarbon Determinations"

In order to assess the chemical nature of contamination in compound-specific radiocarbon analysis, this study uses NMR to identify and quantify column bleed. The paper concludes that column bleed would lead to a maximum shift in radiocarbon age of < 3 years toward older values. As such, column bleed contamination has a negligible effect on the 14C determination of fatty acid methyl esters prepared using the chromatographic method described.

More details: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.analchem.7b00987

Use of a 700 MHz NMR Microcryoprobe for the Identification and Quantification of Exogenous Carbon in Compounds Purified by Preparative Capillary Gas Chromatography for Radiocarbon Determinations - Analytical Chemistry (ACS Publications) Use of a 700 MHz NMR Microcryoprobe for the Identification and Quantification of Exogenous Carbon in Compounds Purified by Preparative Capillary Gas Chromatography for Radiocarbon Determinations

BOGS Annual Meeting 2017 | Environment, Earth and Ecosystem Sciences | Open University British Organic Geochemical Society Annual Meeting 2017 The British Organic Geochemical Society Annual Meeting 2017 will be held at the Walton Hall campus of The Open University on Tuesday 27th and Wednesday 28th June 2017. About BOGS

New paper in Science & Technology of Archaeological research (STAR) led by former OGU member Emily Webb and featuring both past and present OGU members Jamie Lewis, Anika Shain, Noah Honch and Richard Evershed entitled “The influence of varying proportions of terrestrial and marine dietary protein on the stable carbon-isotope compositions of pig tissues from a controlled feeding experiment”.

This paper presents the results of a controlled feeding experiment which was undertaken to define the impact of terrestrial- vs. marine-derived dietary protein consumption on consumer tissue carbon isotopic compositions. The observed tissue-whole diet and tissue-dietary protein carbon isotopic offsets were found to be highly dependent on the percentage of marine protein in diet. Demonstrating that solely using bulk δ13C compositions not only masks considerable information about diet, but may also lead to erroneous representations of marine and terrestrial resource consumption in the past.

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/20548923.2016.1275477

We are inviting you to participate in our session at the 23rd Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists which will be held in Maastricht (the Netherlands) between August 30 and September 3 this year.

Session: #405 Cattle-based Agriculture in Central Europe - introduction, spread and impact

Theme: Interpreting the archaeological record

This interdisciplinary session will examine the introduction and spread of cattle-based agriculture by the Neolithic farmers of Central Europe and its implications for modelling the Neolithisation of Northern and Central Europe beginning in the 6th millennium BC. This revolutionary shift in human subsistence strategy reshaped prehistoric European culture, biology and economy, in ways that underlie modern life worldwide. The session aims to bring together biomolecular, isotopic and morphological studies of faunal, human and other archaeological remains to investigate herding practices. The impact of the introduction of dairying, detectable from organic residues in ceramics and the faunal skeletal-based proxies, into the Neolithic diet on the health and biology of Neolithic humans will also be examined. The session will provide comprehensive assessments of the ways the first farmers of Central Europe managed and exploited their domesticated animals. Papers from the session will highlight the changing roles of domesticated animals in the diets, economies and evolutionary genetics of Neolithic communities in Central Europe. We welcome papers on all aspects of the spread of cattle-based agriculture in Central Europe, asking the contributors to emphasise the role(s) and impacts of domesticated animal-based economies on the lives of Neolithic farmers. Organisers: Mélanie Roffet-Salque (University of Bristol, UK) Jessica Smyth (University College Dublin, Ireland) Richard P. Evershed (University of Bristol, UK).

We invite you to submit an abstract before March 15 on http://www.eaa2017maastricht.nl. If you have any query about the session, please do not hesitate to contact Mélanie ([email protected]) or Jessica ([email protected]).

EAA 2017 EAA 2017

New paper in 'Earth and Planetary Science Letters' by OGU menmbers Jan Peter and Rich Pancost entitled “Precession driven changes in terrestrial organic matter input to the Eastern Mediterranean leading up to the Messinian Salinity Crisis”.

In this paper the analysis of biomarker distributions and carbon isotopic compositions from the Late Miocene Pissouri section (6.6–5.9 Ma), southern Cyprus, are used to illustrate a long-term trend towards more saline Mediterranean conditions during the 600 kyr leading up to the Messinian Salinity Crisis.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012821X17300419

Precession driven changes in terrestrial organic matter input to the Eastern Mediterranean leading up to the Messinian Salinity Crisis Eastern Mediterranean sediments over the past 12 Myr commonly show strongly developed precessional cyclicity, thought to be a biogeochemical response to insolation-driven freshwater input from run-off. The Mediterranean's dominant freshwater source today and in the past, is the Nile, which is fed by...

New paper by David Naafs (feat. Gordon Inglis, Rich Pancost, Richard Evershed and Jerome Blewett plus many collaborators) is published today in Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta

The paper presents global peat-specific temperature and pH calibrations based on branched GDGTs. In total, we investigate 470 samples from 96 peatlands around the world with a broad mean annual air temperature (−8 to 27 °C) and pH (3–8) range.

Importantly, the resulting peat calibrations are distinct from the available mineral soil calibrations. These calibrations are well-suited to reconstruct large amplitude, longer-term shifts in climate such as deglacial transitions or hyperthermal events.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016703717300522

Introducing global peat-specific temperature and pH calibrations based on brGDGT bacterial lipids Glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (GDGTs) are membrane-spanning lipids from Bacteria and Archaea that are ubiquitous in a range of natural archives and especially abundant in peat. Previous work demonstrated that the distribution of bacterial branched GDGTs (brGDGTs) in mineral soils is correlat...

New paper in Nature Geoscience, showing carbon sequestration in an expanded lake system during the Toarcian oceanic anoxic event. Paper led by Weimu Xu from Oxford and includes OGU members David Naafs and Rich Pancost

http://rdcu.be/oAgG

Carbon sequestration in an expanded lake system during the Toarcian oceanic anoxic event Nature Geoscience | doi:10.1038/ngeo2871

New postdoc available, working with Rich Pancost and David Naafs to Reconstruct Terrestrial Temperatures Across the Cenozoic. Application deadline is 12th of March 2017

http://www.bristol.ac.uk/jobs/find/details.html?nPostingId=5502&nPostingTargetId=20706&id=Q50FK026203F3VBQBV7V77V83&LG=UK&sType=SR #.WHkIO68Yd-A.twitter

Details | Working at Bristol | University of Bristol

New paper in 'Earth and Planetary Science Letters' by Gordon Inglis, featuring David Naafs and Rich Pancost.

This study provides the first systematic study of branched GDGTs in lignite deposits. Using samples spanning the early Eocene, this paper also provides new terrestrial temperature estimates from this key interval.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012821X16307099

Mid-latitude continental temperatures through the early Eocene in western Europe Branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (brGDGTs) are increasingly used to reconstruct mean annual air temperature (MAAT) during the early Paleogene. However, the application of this proxy in coal deposits is limited and brGDGTs have only been detected in immature coals (i.e. lignites). Using...

New paper in Nature plants by OGU members Julie Dunne and Richard Evershed entitled "Earliest direct evidence of plant processing in prehistoric Saharan pottery".

In this paper the earliest direct evidence for plant processing in pottery is revealed using characteristic plant wax-derived biomarkers for C3/C4 grasses and aquatic plants, gathered from the savannahs and lakes in the Early to Middle Holocene green Sahara.

http://www.nature.com/articles/nplants2016194

Earliest direct evidence of plant processing in prehistoric Saharan pottery Pottery remains from archaeological sites in the Libyan Sahara provide the earliest direct evidence for plant processing in pottery, dating to 8200–6400 cal BC. The remains show processing of grasses and aquatic plants gathered from the then green Sahara.

Time for the OGU Christmas meal!

Santa came to visit the OGU today School of Chemistry, University of Bristol

Details on the next Stable Isotope Mass Spec User Group meeting, to be held at the BGS next summer!

New paper published in Organic Geochemistry led by former OGU member Mirek Slowakiewicz and featuring Rich Pancost, focussing on the biogeochemistry of microbial mats from Qatar.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0146638016302121?dgcid=raven_sd_via_email

Biogeochemistry of intertidal microbial mats from Qatar: New insights from organic matter characterisation Understanding early organic matter (OM) alteration and preservation in marine carbonate-evaporite systems could improve understanding of carbon cycling and hydrocarbon source rock prediction in such environments. It is possible that organic-rich microbial mats are important contributors to preserved...

Our very own Research Fellow Sabine Lengger featured in the latest article in Science careers on the effect of Brexit on early-career researchers in the UK

http://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2016/11/brexit-pending-early-career-researchers-ponder-their-futures

With Brexit pending, early-career researchers ponder their futures EU researchers working in the United Kingdom grapple with the uncertainty created by the vote to leave the union

New paper in PNAS by OGU members Mélanie Roffet-Salque, Helen Whelton and Richard Evershed entitled "Regional asynchronicity in dairy production and processing in early farming communities of the northern Mediterranean".

The paper combines the analyses of lipid residues in pottery vessels with slaughter profiles for domesticated ruminants to provide compelling evidence for diverse subsistence strategies in the northern Mediterranean basin during the Neolithic.

http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2016/11/08/1607810113.abstract

Regional asynchronicity in dairy production and processing in early farming communities of the northern Mediterranean National Academy of Sciences

The OGU class of 2016/2017!

The Palaeodetectives exhibit has now been installed in the fourth floor lobby of the School of Chemistry! The exhibit explains how biomarkers can be applied to a wide range of fields (inc. archaeology, palaeoclimatology and biogeochemistry).

To play the Palaeodectectives game yourself, click here: http://www.chemlabs.bris.ac.uk/outreach/resources/Palaeodetectives%20Online%20Version/