An automated GC-C-GC-IRMS setup to measure palaeoatmospheric δ13C-CH4, δ15N-N2O and δ18O-N2O in one ice core sample

Atmospheric Measurement Techniques

Volumn 6, Issue 8, 2013, Pages 2027-2041

  Sperlich, P ^a,c   Buizert, C ^a,d   Jenk, T M ^a,e   Sapart, C J ^b   Prokopiou, M ^b   Rockmann T ^b   Blunier, T ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN   (Denmark)

^b UTRECHT UNIVERSITY   (Netherlands)

^c MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR BIOGEOCHEMISTRY   (Germany)

^d OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^e PAUL SCHERRER INSTITUTE   (Switzerland)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

AIR BUBBLE; ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY; AUTOMATION; CARBON ISOTOPE; COMBUSTION; GAS CHROMATOGRAPHY; GAS FLOW; HELIUM; ICE CORE; ISOTOPIC RATIO; KRYPTON; MASS SPECTROMETRY; METHANE; MIXING RATIO; NITROGEN ISOTOPE; NITROUS OXIDE; PALEOATMOSPHERE;

EID: 84882437410     PISSN: 18671381     EISSN: 18678548     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.5194/amt-6-2027-2013     Document Type: Article

References (50)

1. Anicich, V. G.: Evaluated bimolecular ion-molecule gas-phase kinetics of positive-ions for use in modeling planetaryatmospheres, cometary comae, and interstellar clouds, J. Phys. Chem. Ref. Data, 22, 1469-1569, 1993.
2. Aoki, N. and Makide, Y.: The concentration of krypton in the atmosphere-its revision after half a century, Chem. Lett., 34, 1396-1397, doi:10.1246/cl.2005.1396, 2005.
3. Behrens, M., Schmitt, J., Richter, K. U., Bock, M., Richter, U. C., Levin, I., and Fischer, H.: A gas chromatography/ combustion/isotope ratio mass spectrometry system for high-precision -13C measurements of atmospheric methane extracted from ice core samples, Rapid Commun. Mass Sp., 22, 3261-3269, doi:10.1002/rcm.3720, 2008.
4. Bock, M., Schmitt, J., Behrens, M., Möller, L., Schneider, R., Sapart, C., and Fischer, H.: A gas chromatography/ pyrolysis/isotope ratio mass spectrometry system for highprecision -D measurements of atmospheric methane extracted from ice cores, Rapid Commun. Mass Sp., 24, 621-633, doi:10.1002/rcm.4429, 2010a.
5. Bock, M., Schmitt, J., Möller, L., Spahni, R., Blunier, T., and Fischer, H.: Hydrogen isotopes preclude marine hydrate CH4 emissions at the onset of Dansgaard-Oeschger events, Science, 328, 1686-1689, doi:10.1126/science.1187651, 2010b.
6. Brand, W. A.: Precon: A fully automated interface for the pre-GC concentration of trace gases in air for isotopic analysis, Isot. Environ. Healt. S., 31, 277-284, doi:10.1080/10256019508036271, 1995.
7. Brand,W. A.: Mass spectrometer hardware for analyzing stable isotope ratios, in: Handbook of stable isotope analytical techniques, Vol. 1, edited by: Groot, P. A., Elsevier B. V., Amsterdam, 835-856, 2004.
8. Brenninkmeijer, C. A. M.: Measurement of the abundance of 14CO in the atmosphere and the 13C/12C and 18O/16O ratio of atmospheric CO with applications in New-Zealand and Antarctica, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 98, 10595-10614, doi:10.1029/93jd00587, 1993.
9. Brenninkmeijer, C. A. M., Janssen, C., Kaiser, J., Rockmann, T., Rhee, T. S., and Assonov, S. S.: Isotope effects in the chemistry of atmospheric trace compounds, Chem. Rev., 103, 5125-5161, doi:10.1021/cr020644k, 2003.
10. Buizert, C., Martinerie, P., Petrenko, V. V., Severinghaus, J. P., Trudinger, C. M., Witrant, E., Rosen, J. L., Orsi, A. J., Rubino, M., Etheridge, D. M., Steele, L. P., Hogan, C., Laube, J. C., Sturges, W. T., Levchenko, V. A., Smith, A. M., Levin, I., Conway, T. J., Dlugokencky, E. J., Lang, P. M., Kawamura, K., Jenk, T. M., White, J.W. C., Sowers, T., Schwander, J., and Blunier, T.: Gas transport in firn: Multiple-tracer characterisation and model intercomparison for NEEM, Northern Greenland, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 12, 4259-4277, doi:10.5194/acp-12-4259-2012, 2012.
11. Carter, J. F. and Barwick, V. J.: Good practice guide for isotope ratio mass spectrometry, 1st Edn., 1-48, ISBN 978-0-948926-31-0, 2011.
12. Coplen, T. B., Brand, W. A., Gehre, M., Groning, M., Meijer, H. A. J., Toman, B., and Verkouteren, R. M.: After two decades a second anchor for the VPDB -13C scale, Rapid Commun. Mass Sp., 20, 3165-3166, doi:10.1002/rcm.2727, 2006.
13. Cullis, C. F. and Willatt, B. M.: Oxidation of methane over supported precious metal-catalysts, J. Catal., 83, 267-285, doi:10.1016/0021-9517(83) 90054-4, 1983.
14. Date, M., Ichihashi, Y., Yamashita, T., Chiorino, A., Boccuzzi, F., and Haruta, A.: Performance of Au/TiO2 catalyst under ambient conditions, Catal. Today, 72, 89-94, doi:10.1016/s0920-5861(01)00481-3, 2002.
15. DesMarais, D. J.: Variable-temperature cryogenic trap for separation of gas-mixtures, Anal. Chem., 50, 1405-1406, doi:10.1021/ac50031a056, 1978.
16. Ferretti, D. F., Miller, J. B., White, J. W. C., Etheridge, D. M., Lassey, K. R., Lowe, D. C., Meure, C. M. M., Dreier, M. F., Trudinger, C. M., van Ommen, T. D., and Langenfelds, R. L.: Unexpected changes to the global methane budget over the past 2000 years, Science, 309, 1714-1717, doi:10.1126/science.1115193, 2005.
17. Fischer, H., Behrens, M., Bock, M., Richter, U., Schmitt, J., Loulergue, L., Chappellaz, J., Spahni, R., Blunier, T., Leuenberger, M., and Stocker, T. F.: Changing boreal methane sources and constant biomass burning during the last termination, Nature, 452, 864-867, doi:10.1038/nature06825, 2008.
18. Flückiger, J., Blunier, T., Stauffer, B., Chappellaz, J., Spahni, R., Kawamura, K., Schwander, J., Stocker, T. F., and Dahl-Jensen, D.: N2O and CH4 variations during the last glacial epoch: Insight into global processes, Global Biogeochem. Cy., 18, 14, Gb1020, doi:10.1029/2003gb002122, 2004.
19. Friedli, H. and Siegenthaler, U.: Influence of N2O on isotope analyses in CO2 and mass-spectrometric determination of N2O in air samples, Tellus B, 40, 129-133, 1988.
20. Ghosh, P. and Brand, W. A.: The effect of N2O on the isotopic composition of air-CO2 samples, Rapid Commun. Mass Sp., 18, 1830-1838, doi:10.1002/rcm. 1560, 2004.
21. Kato, S., Akimoto, H., Braunlich, M., Röckmann, T., and Brenninkmeijer, C. A. M.: Measurements of stable carbon and oxygen isotopic compositions of CO in automobile exhausts and ambient air from semi-urban Mainz, Germany, Geochem. J., 33, 73-77, 1999.
22. Loulergue, L., Schilt, A., Spahni, R., Masson-Delmotte, V., Blunier, T., Lemieux, B., Barnola, J. M., Raynaud, D., Stocker, T. F., and Chappellaz, J.: Orbital and millennial-scale features of atmospheric ch4 over the past 800,000 years, Nature, 453, 383-386, doi:10.1038/nature06950, 2008.
23. McPherson, J., Thompson, D., Pattrick, G., Holliday, R., Ramdayal, D., Khumalo, T., and Van der Lingen, E.: Commercial opportunities for gold catalysts, World Gold Conference 2009, Johannesburg, South Africa, 2009.
24. Melton, J. R., Schaefer, H., and Whiticar, M. J.: Enrichment in 13C of atmospheric CH4 during the younger dryas termination, Clim. Past., 8, 1177-1197, doi:10.5194/cp-8-1177-2012, 2011a.
25. Melton, J. R., Whiticar, M. J., and Eby, P.: Stable carbon isotope ratio analyses on trace methane from ice samples, Chem. Geol., 288, 88-96, doi:10.1016/j.chemgeo.2011.03.003, 2011b.
26. Merritt, D. A., Brand, W. A., and Hayes, J. M.: Isotope-ratiomonitoring gas-chromatography mass-spectrometry-methods for isotopic calibration, Org. Geochem., 21, 573-583, 1994.
27. Merritt, D. A., Freeman, K. H., Ricci, M. P., Studley, S. A., and Hayes, J. M.: Performance and optimization of a combustion interface for isotope ratio monitoring gas-chromatography massspectrometry, Anal. Chem., 67, 2461-2473, 1995.
28. Mitchell, L. E., Brook, E. J., Sowers, T., McConnell, J. R., and Taylor, K.: Multidecadal variability of atmospheric methane, 1000-1800 ce, J. Geophys. Res.-Biogeosci., 116, G02007, doi:10.1029/2010jg001441, 2011.
29. Rhodes, R. H., Fä?n, X., Stowasser, C., Blunier, T., Chappellaz, J., McConnell, J., Romanini, D., Mitchell, L. E., and Brook, E. J.: Continuous methane measurements from a late holocene greenland ice core: Atmospheric and in-situ signals, Earth Planet. Sc. Lett., 368, 9-19, doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2013.02. 034, 2013.
30. Röckmann, T. and Levin, I.: High-precision determination of the changing isotopic composition of atmospheric N2O from 1990 to 2002, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 110, D21304, doi:10.1029/2005jd006066, 2005.
31. Sapart, C. J., van der Veen, C., Vigano, I., Brass, M., van de Wal, R. S.W., Bock, M., Fischer, H., Sowers, T., Buizert, C., Sperlich, P., Blunier, T., Behrens, M., Schmitt, J., Seth, B., and Röckmann, T.: Simultaneous stable isotope analysis of methane and nitrous oxide on ice core samples, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 4, 2607-2618, doi:10.5194/amt-4-2607-2011, 2011.
32. Sapart, C. J., Monteil, G., Prokopiou, M., van de Wal, R. S. W., Kaplan, J. O., Sperlich, P., Krumhardt, K. M., van der Veen, C., Houweling, S., Krol, M. C., Blunier, T., Sowers, T., Martinerie, P., Witrant, E., Dahl-Jensen, D., and Röckmann, T.: Natural and anthropogenic variations in methane sources during the past two millennia, Nature, 490, 85-88, doi:10.1038/nature11461, 2012.
33. Sapart, C. J., Martinerie, P., Witrant, E., Chappellaz, J., van de Wal, R. S. W., Sperlich, P., van der Veen, C., Bernard, S., Sturges, W. T., Blunier, T., Schwander, J., Etheridge, D., and Röckmann, T.: Can the carbon isotopic composition of methane be reconstructed from multi-site firn air measurements?, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 6993-7005, doi:10.5194/acp-13-6993-2013, 2013.
34. Schaefer, H. and Whiticar, M. J.: Measurement of stable carbon isotope ratios of methane in ice samples, Org. Geochem., 38, 216-226, doi:10.1016/j.orggeochem.2006.10.006, 2007.
35. Schaefer, H., Whiticar, M. J., Brook, E. J., Petrenko, V. V., Ferretti, D. F., and Severinghaus, J. P.: Ice record of 13C for atmospheric CH4 across the younger dryas-preboreal transition, Science, 313, 1109-1112, doi:10.1126/science.1126562, 2006.
36. Schilt, A., Baumgartner, M., Schwander, J., Buiron, D., Capron, E., Chappellaz, J., Loulergue, L., Schupbach, S., Spahni, R., Fischer, H., and Stocker, T. F.: Atmospheric nitrous oxide during the last 140,000 years, Earth Planet. Sc. Lett., 300, 33-43, doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2010.09.027, 2010.
37. Schmitt, J., Seth, B., Bock, M., Fischer, H., Möller, L., Sapart, C. J., Prokopiou, M., Van der Veen, C., Röckmann, T., and Sowers, T.: On the interference of Kr during carbon isotope analysis of atmospheric methane using continuous flow combustionisotope ratio mass spectrometry, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 6, 1425-1445, doi:10.5194/amt-6-1425-2013, 2013.
38. Sessions, A. L.: Isotope-ratio detection for gas chromatography, J. Sep. Sci., 29, 1946-1961, doi:10.1002/jssc.200600002, 2006.
39. Solomon, S., Qin, D., Manning, M., Alley, R. B., Berntsen, T., Bindoff, N. L., Chen, Z., Chidthaisong, A., Gregory, J. M., Hegerl, G. C., Heimann, M., Hewitson, B., Hoskins, B. J., Joos, F., Jouzel, J., Kattsov, V., Lohmann, U., Matsuno, T., Molina, M. J., Nicholls, N., Overpeck, J., Raga, G., Ramaswamy, V., Ren, J., Rusticucci, M., Somerville, R., Stocker, T. F., Whetton, P.,Wood, R. A., and Wratt, D.: Climate change 2007: The physical science basis. Contribution of working group i to the fourth assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change, 2007.
40. Sowers, T.: Late quaternary atmospheric CH4 isotope record suggests marine clathrates are stable, Science, 311, 838-840, doi:10.1126/science. 1121235, 2006.
41. Sowers, T.: Atmospheric methane isotope records covering the holocene period, Quaternary Sci. Rev., 29, 213-221, doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2009.05.023, 2009.
42. Sowers, T. and Jubenville, J.: A modified extraction technique for liberating occluded gases from ice cores, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 105, 29155-29164, 2000.
43. Sowers, T., Alley, R. B., and Jubenville, J.: Ice core records of atmospheric N2O covering the last 106,000 years, Science, 301, 945-948, 2003.
44. Sowers, T., Bernard, S., Aballain, O., Chappellaz, J., Barnola, J. M., and Marik, T.: Records of the 13C of atmospheric CH4 over the last 2 centuries as recorded in antarctic snow and ice, Global Biogeochem. Cy., 19, Gb2002, doi:10.1029/2004gb002408, 2005.
45. Sperlich, P., Guillevic, M., Buizert, C., Jenk, T. M., Sapart, C. J., Schaefer, H., Popp, T. J., and Blunier, T.: A combustion setup to precisely reference 13C and 2H isotope ratios of pure CH4 to produce isotope reference gases of 13C-CH4 in synthetic air, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 5, 2227-2236, doi:10.5194/amt-5-2227-2012, 2012.
46. Sturm, P., Leuenberger, M., Sirignano, C., Neubert, R. E. M., Meijer, H. A. J., Langenfelds, R., Brand,W. A., and Tohjima, Y.: Permeation of atmospheric gases through polymer o-rings used in flasks for air sampling, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 109, D04309, doi:10.1029/2003jd004073, 2004.
47. Umezawa, T., Aoki, S., Nakazawa, T., and Morimoto, S.: A highprecision measurement system for carbon and hydrogen isotopic ratios of atmospheric methane and its application to air samples collected in the western pacific region, J. Meteorol. Soc. Jpn., 87, 365-379, doi:10.2151/jmsj.87.365, 2009.
48. Verkouteren, R. M.: Preparation, characterization, and value assignment of carbon dioxide isotopic reference materials: Rms 8562, 8563, and 8564, Anal. Chem., 71, 4740-4746, doi:10.1021/ac990233c, 1999.
49. Walther, G., Cervera-Gontard, L., Quaade, U. J., and Horch, S.: Low temperature methane oxidation on differently supported 2 nm au nanoparticles, Gold Bull., 42, 13-19, doi:10.1007/BF03214901, 2009.
50. Werner, R. A. and Brand, W. A.: Referencing strategies and techniques in stable isotope ratio analysis, Rapid Commun. Mass Sp., 15, 501-519, 2001.