Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T20:24:58.478Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Influence of Different Acid Treatments on the Radiocarbon Content Spectrum of Sedimentary Organic Matter Determined by RPO/Accelerator Mass Spectrometry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 November 2018

Rui Bao Open the ORCID record for Rui Bao [Opens in a new window] ,
Ann P McNichol ,
Jordon D Hemingway ,
Mary C Lardie Gaylord  and
Timothy I Eglinton
Rui Bao*
Affiliation:
Geological Institute, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland National Ocean Sciences Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Facility, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, USA Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
Ann P McNichol
Affiliation:
National Ocean Sciences Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Facility, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, USA
Jordon D Hemingway
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA MIT/WHOI, Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering, Cambridge, MA, USA Department of Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, USA
Mary C Lardie Gaylord
Affiliation:
National Ocean Sciences Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Facility, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, USA
Timothy I Eglinton
Affiliation:
Geological Institute, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland Department of Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In practice, obtaining radiocarbon (14C) composition of organic matter (OM) in sediments requires first removing inorganic carbon (IC) by acid-treatment. Two common treatments are acid rinsing and fumigation. Resulting 14C content obtained by different methods can differ, but underlying causes of these differences remain elusive. To assess the influence of different acid-treatments on 14C content of sedimentary OM, we examine the variability in 14C content for a range of marine and river sediments. By comparing results for unacidified and acidified sediments [HCl rinsing (RinseHCl) and HCl fumigation (FumeHCl)], we demonstrate that the two acid-treatments can affect 14C content differentially. Our findings suggest that, for low-carbonate samples, RinseHCl affects the Fm values due to loss of young labile organic carbon (OC). FumeHCl makes the Fm values for labile OC decrease, leaving the residual OC older. High-carbonate samples can lose relatively old organic components during RinseHCl, causing the Fm values of remaining OC to increase. FumeHCl can remove thermally labile, usually young, OC and reduce the Fm values. We suggest three factors should be taken into account when using acid to remove carbonate from sediments: IC abundance, proportions of labile and refractory OC, and environmental matrix.

Keywords

acidificationpretreatmentradiocarbonsedimentsstable carbon isotope
Type
Research Article
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 61 , Issue 2 , April 2019 , pp. 395 - 413
Copyright
© 2018 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Bao, R, McIntyre, C, Zhao, M, Zhu, C, Kao, SJ, Eglinton, TI. 2016. Widespread dispersal and aging of organic carbon in shallow marginal seas. Geology 44:791–794.Google Scholar
Bao, R, McNichol, P, McIntyre, C Xu, L, Eglinton, TI. 2018a. Dimensions of radiocarbon variability within sedimentary organic matter. Radiocarbon 60(3):775–790 . Google Scholar
Bao, R, Strasser, M, McNichol, AP, Haghipour, N, McIntyre, C, Wefer, G, Eglinton, TI. 2018b. Tectonically-triggered sediment and carbon export to the Hadal zone. Nature Communications 9(1):121. doi:10.1038/s41467-017-02504-1.Google Scholar
Bothner, MH, Spiker, EC, Johnson, PP, Rendigs, RR, Aruscavage, PJ. 1981. Geochemical evidence for modern sediment accumulation on the continental shelf off southern New England. Journal of Sedimentary Research 51:281–292.Google Scholar
Blair, NE, Aller, RC. 2012. The fate of terrestrial organic carbon in the marine environment. Annual Review of Marine Science 4:401–423.Google Scholar
Brodie, CR, Leng, MJ, Casford, JS, Kendrick, CP, Lloyd, JM, Yongqiang, Z, Bird, MI. 2011. Evidence for bias in C and N concentrations and δ13C composition of terrestrial and aquatic organic materials due to pre-analysis acid preparation methods. Chemical Geology 282(2–3):67–83.Google Scholar
Canuel, EA, Hardison, AK. 2016. Sources, ages, and alteration of organic matter in estuaries. Annual Review of Marine Science 8:409–434.Google Scholar
Capel, EL, de la Rosa Arranz, JM, González-Vila, FJ, González-Perez, JA, Manning, DA. 2006. Elucidation of different forms of organic carbon in marine sediments from the Atlantic coast of Spain using thermal analysis coupled to isotope ratio and quadrupole mass spectrometry. Organic Geochemistry 37(12):1983–1994.Google Scholar
Charton, M. 1975. Steric effects. I. Esterification and acid-catalyzed hydrolysis of esters. Journal of the American Chemical Society 97:1552–1556.Google Scholar
Connolly, RM, Schlacher, TA. 2013. Sample acidification significantly alters stable isotope ratios of sulfur in aquatic plants and animals. Marine Ecology Progress Series 493:1–8.Google Scholar
Csapá, J, Csapó-Kiss, Z, Wágner, L, Tálos, T, Martin, TG, Folestad, S, Tivesten, A, Némethy, S. 1997. Hydrolysis of proteins performed at high temperatures and for short times with reduced racemization, in order to determine the enantiomers of D-and L-amino acids. Analytica Chimica Acta 339:99–107.Google Scholar
Druffel, ER, Honju, S, Griffin, S, Wong, C. 1986. Radiocarbon in particulate matter from the eastern sub-arctic Pacific Ocean: evidence of a source of terrestrial carbon to the deep sea. Radiocarbon 28(2A):397–407.Google Scholar
Froelich, PN. 1980. Analysis of organic carbon in marine sediments. Limnology and Oceanography 25:564–572.Google Scholar
Fry, B, Peltzer, ET, Hopkinson, CS, Nolin, A, Redmond, L. 1996. Analysis of marine DOC using a dry combustion method. Marine Chemistry 54(3–4):191–201.Google Scholar
Griffith, DR, Martin, WR, Eglinton, TI. 2010. The radiocarbon age of organic carbon in marine surface sediment. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 74(23):6788–6800.Google Scholar
Harris, P, Juggins, S. 2011. Estimating freshwater acidification critical load exceedance data for Great Britain using space-varying relationship models. Mathematical Geosciences 43:265–292.Google Scholar
Hedges, JI, Stern, JH. 1984. Carbon and nitrogen determinations of carbonate-containing solids. Limnology and Oceanography 29:657–663.Google Scholar
Hemingway, JD, Galy, VV, Gagnon, AR, Grant, KE, Rosengard, SZ, Soulet, G, Zigah, PK, McNichol, AP. 2017a. Assessing the blank carbon contribution, istopic mass balance, and kinetic isotope fractionation of the ramped pyrolysis/oxidation instrument at NOSAMS. Radiocarbon 59(1):1–15.Google Scholar
Hemingway, JD, Rothman, DH, Rosengard, SZ, Galy, VV. 2017b. Technical note: an inverse method to relate organic carbon reactivity to isotope composition from serial oxidation. Biogeosciences 14:5099–5114.Google Scholar
Hemingway, JD, Hilton, RG, Hovius, N, Eglinton, TI, Haghipour, N, Wacker, L, Chen, M-C, Galy, VV. 2018. Microbial oxidation of lithospheric organic carbon in rapidly eroding tropical mountain soils. Science 360:209–212 Google Scholar
Jaschinski, S, Hansen, T, Sommer, U. 2008. Effects of acidification in multiple stable isotope analyses. Limnology and Oceanography: Methods 6:12–15.Google Scholar
Kennedy, P, Kennedy, H, Papadimitriou, S. 2005. The effect of acidification on the determination of organic carbon, total nitrogen and their stable isotopic composition in algae and marine sediment. Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry 19(8):1063–1068.Google Scholar
Kleber, M, Nico, PS, Plante, A., Filley, T, Kramer, M., Swanston, C, Sollins, P. 2011. Old and stable soil organic matter is not necessarily chemically recalcitrant: implications for modeling concepts and temperature sensitivity. Global Change Biology 17(2):1097–1107.Google Scholar
Komada, T, Anderson, MR, Dorfmeier, CL. 2008. Carbonate removal from coastal sediments for the determination of organic carbon and its isotopic signatures, δ13C and Δ14C: comparison of fumigation and direct acidification by hydrochloric acid. Limnology and Oceanography: Methods 6:254–262.Google Scholar
Li, CJ. 1993. Organic reactions in aqueous media-with a focus on carbon-carbon bond formation. Chemical Reviews 93(6):2023–2035.Google Scholar
Longworth, BE, von Reden, KF, Long, P, Roberts, ML. 2015. A high output, large acceptance injector for the NOSAMS Tandetron AMS system. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 361(15):211–216.Google Scholar
Martin, W, McNichol, A, McCorkle, D. 2000. The radiocarbon age of calcite dissolving at the sea floor: Estimates from pore water data. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 64(8):1391–1404.Google Scholar
Mayer, LM. 1994. Surface area control of organic carbon accumulation in continental shelf sediments. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 58(4):1271–1284.Google Scholar
McNichol, AP, Lee, C, Druffel, ERM. 1988. Carbon cycling in coastal sediments: 1. A quantitative estimate of the remineralization of organic carbon in the sediments of Buzzards Bay, MA. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 52 (6):1531–1543.Google Scholar
McNichol, AP, Gagnon, AR, Jones, GA, Osborne, EA. 1992. Illumination of a black box: analysis of gas composition during graphite target preparation. Radiocarbon 34(3):321–329.Google Scholar
McNichol, A, Osborne, E, Gagnon, A, Fry, B, Jones, G. 1994. TIC, TOC, DIC, DOC, PIC, POC—unique aspects in the preparation of oceanographic samples for 14C-AMS. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 92(1–4): 162–165.Google Scholar
McNichol, AP, Aluwihare, LI. 2007. The power of radiocarbon in biogeochemical studies of the marine carbon cycle: Insights from studies of dissolved and particulate organic carbon (DOC and POC). Chemical Reviews 107(2): 443–466.Google Scholar
Meyers, PA. 1994. Preservation of elemental and isotopic source identification of sedimentary organic matter. Chemical Geology 114(3–4):289–302.Google Scholar
Plante, AF, Beaupré, SR, Roberts, ML, Baisden, T. 2013. Distribution of radiocarbon ages in soil organic matter by thermal fractionation. Radiocarbon 55:1077–1083.Google Scholar
Phillips, SC, Johnson, JE, Miranda, E, Disenhof, C. 2011. Improving CHN measurements in carbonate-rich marine sediments. Limnology and Oceanography: Methods 9(5):194–203.Google Scholar
Poppe, L, Commeau, J, Valentine, P, 1991. Mineralogy of the silt fraction in surficial sediments from the outer continental shelf off southeastern New England. Journal of Sedimentary Research 61:54–64.Google Scholar
Ramnarine, R, Voroney, R, Wagner-Riddle, C, Dunfield, K. 2011. Carbonate removal by acid fumigation for measuring the δ13C of soil organic carbon. Canadian Journal of Soil Science 91(2):247–250.Google Scholar
Roland, LA, McCarthy, MD, Guilderson, T. 2008. Sources of molecularly uncharacterized organic carbon in sinking particles from three ocean basins: a coupled Δ14C and δ13C approach. Marine Chemistry 111(3):199–213.Google Scholar
Rosengard, S. 2017. Novel analytical strategies for tracing the organic carbon cycle in marine and riverine particles [PhD thesis]. 272 p.Google Scholar
Rosenheim, BE, Day, MB, Domack, E, Schrum, H, Benthien, A, Hayes, JM. 2008. Antarctic sediment chronology by programmed-temperature pyrolysis: Methodology and data treatment. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems 9: Q04005. doi: 10.1029/2007GC001816.Google Scholar
Rosenheim, BE, Santoro, JA, Gunter, M, Domack, EW. 2013. Improving antarctic sediment 14C dating using ramped pyrolysis: an example from the Hugo Island Trough. Radiocarbon 55(1):115–126.Google Scholar
Schmidt, M, Gleixner, G. 2005. Carbon and nitrogen isotope composition of bulk soils, particle-size fractions and organic material after treatment with hydrofluoric acid. European Journal of Soil Science 56(3):407–416.Google Scholar
Schreiner, KM, Bianchi, TS, Rosenheim, BE. 2014. Evidence for permafrost thaw and transport from an Alaskan North Slope watershed. Geophysical Research Letters 41:3117–3126. doi:10.1002/2014GL059514.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M, Polach, HA. 1977. Discussion: reporting of 14C data. Radiocarbon 19:355–363.Google Scholar
Sun, Y, Cheng, J. 2002. Hydrolysis of lignocellulosic materials for ethanol production: a review. Bioresource Technology 83(1):1–11.Google Scholar
Trumbore, SE, Zheng, S. 1996. Comparison of fractionation methods for soil organic matter 14C analysis. Radiocarbon 38(2):219–229.Google Scholar
Vafeiadou, AM, Adão, H, De Troch, M, Moens, T. 2013. Sample acidification effects on carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios of macrofauna from a Zostera noltii bed. Marine and Freshwater Research 64:741–745.Google Scholar
von Reden, KF, McNichol, AP, Pearson, A, Schneider, RJ. 1998. 14C AMS measurements of <100 μg samples with a high-current system. Radiocarbon. 40(1):247–253.Google Scholar
Wakeham, SG, Canuel, EA, Lerberg, EJ, Mason, P, Sampere, TP, Bianchi, TS. 2009. Partitioning of organic matter in continental margin sediments among density fractions. Marine Chemistry 115(3–4):211–225.Google Scholar
Williams, EK, Rosenheim, BE, Allison, M, McNichol, AP, Xu, L. 2015. Quantification of refractory organic material in Amazon mudbanks of the French Guiana Coast. Marine Geology 363(1):93–101.Google Scholar
Zonneveld, K, Versteegh, G, Kasten, S, Eglinton, TI, Emeis, KC, Huguet, C, Koch, BP, de Lange, GJ, De Leeuw, J, Middelburg, JJ. 2010. Selective preservation of organic matter in marine environments; processes and impact on the sedimentary record. Biogeosciences 7:483–511.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Bao et al. supplementary material

Bao et al. supplementary material 1

Download Bao et al. supplementary material(File)
File 554.4 KB