Terrestrial ecosystems are an important part of the global carbon cycle, but their response to anthropogenic climate change remains poorly constrained.
Using radiocarbon (¹⁴C) we develop tools to trace carbon across terrestrial ecosystems, with a particular focus on the large soil and belowground carbon reservoir. We target the spatial scale, by collecting environmental samples from a cave in the Swiss Jura, and the temporal scale, by developing analytical approaches to measure ¹⁴C in cave carbonates.

This work was carried out in the group of Dr. Franziska Lechleitner.

References:

• F. A. Lechleitner, S. Rowan, J. Strähl, M. Rauber, S. Q. Lang, S. Szidat;
  "Speleothem organic carbon isotopes as a novel tracer for terrestrial ecosystem change - new method developments"
  EGU General Assembly, 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23-27 May 2022, EGU22-2967;
  doi:10.5194/egusphere-egu22-2967.
• S. Rowan, M. Luetscher, S. Szidat, F. A. Lechleitner;
  "High Resolution Monitoring of Organic Matter at Milandre Cave, Switzerland. Implications for Future Paleoecosystem Proxies"
  EGU General Assembly, 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23-27 May 2022, EGU22-4066;
  doi:10.5194/egusphere-egu22-4066.