Rosenheim Group                      Facilities                        Projects                        Personnel   

Rosenheim Group Projects

 

Isotope Forensics of Gulf of Mexico Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

N. Atlantic Radiocarbon Records and Heat Transport

Records of age-corrected radiocarbon (14C) from corals and

sclerosponges (collected and shared by researchers at the

Stable Isotope Laboratory of the University of Miami) will

be used to constrain heat transport by the Subtropical Cells

(STC’s) of the tropical N. Atlantic Ocean.  Locations of the

records in the Bahamas (subsurface return flow) and the

island of Principe (equatorial upwelling zone) will be

compared to records from the Cape Verde Islands (frontal zone between upwelling and subducting water masses) to constrain positioning of the upwelling and subduction zones that comprise the STC’s.  These data will be used to attempt to constrain oceanographic influence on Caribbean proxies that show a larger-than-global-average temperature increase for the 20th century. 




















See ERSSTv3b animations!

The Rosenheim group has continuously sampled oil deposited along the coast of Grand Isle, Louisiana, and in Barataria Bay, Louisiana, since June, 2010.  Isotopic measurements have tracked the weathering and mixing of this oil.  Isotope measurements on individual compounds will allow us to “fingerprint” it.  A proof of concept paper has been published in Environmental Research Letters with a Masters student as the lead author.  In June, 2012, members of the group sampled bottom sediments as part of the Consortium for Advanced Research of Hydrocarbon Transport in the Environment (CARTHE).  This was the first of three cruises; the second is now planned for June 24-29, 2013.    The 2012 cruise has led to one accepted article (Deep Sea Research II) and another two in the pipeline.  The 2013 cruise sampled along the plume-influenced 1100 m isobath.  Recent publications:  Pendergraft et al., 2013, ERL

Recent Climate Change of the Antarctic Peninsula (Larsen Ice Shelf System)
The Rosenheim group has teamed with Noel Gourmelen and Andrew Shepherd at the Leeds Center for Polar Science to investigate ice cores taken from the Larsen Ice Shelf.  These cores span ~30 years, during which significant change has taken place on the ice shelf and during which only limited local or regional meteorological time series are available.  The team has measured hydrogen and oxygen isotope ratios of the water melted from the ice cores.  Work on the ice cores was performed by members of both teams at the British Antarctic Survey.  The work suggests marine driven thinning of the ice, and limited atmospheric warming of the region.http://www.personal.leeds.ac.uk/~earngomhttp://www.see.leeds.ac.uk/people/a.shepherdhttp://www.see.leeds.ac.uk/polar_centre/http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a002400/a002421/index.htmlhttp://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a002400/a002421/index.htmlhttp://www.antarctica.ac.uk/shapeimage_6_link_0shapeimage_6_link_1shapeimage_6_link_2shapeimage_6_link_3shapeimage_6_link_4shapeimage_6_link_5

Rivers large and small transport not only water, but sediment and affiliated carbon.  Transport of the latter plays an important role in the part of the carbon cycle that is most affected by anthropogenic release of CO2.  Personnel within the group are involved in analyzing sediment from the Mississippi River to

determine the spectrum of ages (determined by

measuring 14C content) present in particulate

organic carbon sediment during different flow

regimes of the river.  These flow regimes include

the 2008 and 2011 high water events.  Members

of the group use one of two in-house programmed temperature pyrolysis/combustion system (PTP/CS) that allows ramped pyrolysis radiocarbon dating.  Recent publications:


Mississippi/Atchafalaya River System - Rosenheim et al., 2013, Global Biogeochemical Cycles


Narayani River, Ganges River System - Rosenheim and Galy, 2012, Geophysical Research Letters

    -Highlight in Nature Geosciences

Age Distributions of Organic Material Transported by Rivers

Paleo-Ice Shelf Retreat Chronology
Along with colleagues Amelia Shevenell and Eugene Domack (University of South Florida), members of the Rosenheim group have obtained sediment cores from the Antarctica peninsula.  We will be using ramped pyrolysis radiocarbon to better constrain the age of autochthonous particulate organic matter contained in the sediments immediately above glacial diamicton sediment in Antarctic Peninsula paleo-ice streams.  These ages will represent the best approximation to date of the maximum age of pelagic drape deposits.  The results of this work will have implications on the timing of meltwater pulses and correlation with Antarctic ice core climate records.  








Recent publication: Rosenheim et al., 2013, Radiocarbonhttp://www.marine.usf.edu/faculty/amelia-shevenell.shtmlhttp://www.marine.usf.edu/faculty/amelia-shevenell.shtmlhttps://journals.uair.arizona.edu/index.php/radiocarbon/article/view/16234shapeimage_8_link_0shapeimage_8_link_1shapeimage_8_link_2

20th century proxy trends (circles = sessile, triangle = planktic) on gridded 20th century trends in ERSSTv3b. FL Keys corals calibrated to ERSSTv3b.