Thomas Blattmann


Last Name

Blattmann

First Name

Thomas

ORCID

0000-0001-7052-7922

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Publications 1 - 10 of 42
  • Radiocarbon Stocktaking of Swiss Lakes: Relevance to Carbon Budgets and Dynamics
    Item type: Conference Poster
    Mittelbach, Benedict V.A.; Blattmann, Thomas; Haghipour, Negar; et al. (2022)
    Inland waters play a crucial role in the global carbon cycle, with organic carbon (OC) burial in lake sediments constituting a removal of carbon from rapidly cycling Earth surface pools. However, the nature of sequestered OC has different climatic implications. The burial of recently synthesized terrestrial and aquatic biospheric OC represents a drawdown of atmospheric carbon. In contrast, the reburial of petrogenic OC exerts no net effect on atmospheric CO2 levels, while oxidation of petrogenic carbon releases CO2. Therefore, it is crucial to distinguish the origin of OC when quantifying lake sediment carbon budgets. Radiocarbon (14C) is a powerful tool to distinguish between recent, pre-aged, and fossil carbon sources. Moreover, the 20th-Century radiocarbon “bomb spike” offers the possibility of constraining carbon dynamics and deconvolute inputs on decadal time scales through down-core investigation of lacustrine records including quantitatively disentangling different sources of OC, which exhibit contrasting susceptibilities to remineralization. Switzerland hosts various lake catchments within different biogeographical ecoregions, experiencing contrasting degrees of climate change. We use these natural gradients to assess controls on the abundance, sources, and dynamics of OC accumulating within Swiss lake sediments over the last century. We combine 14C and stable δ13C isotope signatures of bulk OC from sediment cores from a range of lake systems to constrain the nature and dynamics of OC accumulation. These data form the foundation for more in-depth investigations using 14C measurements on source-specific biomarkers to constrain the temporal dynamics and transport pathways of biospheric carbon and to refine carbon stocktaking assessments.
  • Radiocarbon signatures of dissolved black carbon in the early winter Beaufort Sea
    Item type: Conference Poster
    Speidel, Linn; Haghipour, Negar; Blattmann, Thomas; et al. (2024)
  • Towards performing enantiomer-specific radiocarbon measurements on individual amino acids
    Item type: Conference Poster
    Blattmann, Thomas (2024)
  • Deciphering organic matter distribution by source-specific biomarkers in the shallow Taiwan Strait from a source-to-sink perspective
    Item type: Journal Article
    Tao, Shuqin; Liu, James T.; Wang, Aijun; et al. (2022)
    Frontiers in Marine Science
    Sedimentary organic matter (OM) in coastal systems is inherently diverse, often with multiple particulate sources and transport histories. The Taiwan Strait (TS) is a typical shallow conduit region, linking the East and South China Seas. Strong ocean currents, coastal upwellings, distal large rivers, and proximal small mountainous rivers all influence the distribution of OM in the TS. We investigated the covarying patterns in the distribution of gain size classes of sand, silt, and clay; terrestrial-sourced biomarkers (n-C27+29+31 alkanes, n-C26+28+30 fatty acids (FAs), and n-C28+30+32 alkanols); marine-sourced biomarkers (phytoplankton-derived alkenones, brassicasterol, dinosterol, and zooplankton-derived cholesterol) in sea floor sediment; indicator satellite-derived primary production (Chl-a); and water-mass indicator (sea surface temperature, SST). We used an empirical orthogonal/eigen function (EOF) analysis to distinguish the influence of four hypothetical sources that entered the TS through the north, south, west, and east boundaries. Results show that input sources from the south-bound ZMCC (Zhejiang-Fujian Coastal Current) and north-bound SCSWC (South China Sea Warm Current) had the dominant influence on the OM distributions buried in the TS. Input sources via river plumes on lateral boundaries and upwellings in the TS were the secondary factors that affected the sedimentary OM distribution. Within this source-to-sink system of multiple sources and transport processes, silt and clay were the major carriers of the OM signals. Terrestrial biomarkers and primary production (Chl-a) were associated with the two major current systems and river plumes along the edge of TS. Marine biomarkers were associated with upwellings in the interior of the TS. Our finding points out that the physical systems of ocean currents, river plumes, and upwelling not only determine the distributions of biomarkers in the TS but also determine the diversity of OM in the TS.
  • The Modern Ocean Sediment Archive and Inventory of Carbon (MOSAIC 2.0): understanding the distribution of radiocarbon in surface sediments
    Item type: Conference Poster
    Paradis, Sarah; van der Voort, Tessa S.; Gies, Hannah; et al. (2022)
  • Coupling of Dye Analysis and Compound Specific Radiocarbon (14C) Analysis (CSRA) in Heritage Sciences
    Item type: Journal Article
    Hendriks, Laura; Blattmann, Thomas; Haghipour, Negar; et al. (2023)
    Chimia ~ Chemistry & Soil
    Natural organic dyes and pigments have been used formillennia to bring colour into our daily lives. Being sourced froma variety of natural sources, they form an extremely varied andlarge class of compounds, all of whichretain the atmospheric14CO2of their year of growth. As such these compoundsrepresent ideal candidates for radiocarbon (14C) dating, allowingthe identification of or providing information towards theperiod in which the coloured artefact was created. However,up to now no such analysis has ever been conducted solelyon organic colourants within an object. The complex natureof the samples and the sample size limitations withrespect toprecious and rare art artefactsrequires innovative inter- andmultidisciplinary approaches. Here we discuss preliminaryresults in the development of a compound-specific radiocarbonanalysis (CSRA) methodology for the analysis of anthraquinonederivedred dyes extracted from dyed wool yarns. The aimof thisresearch project is to introduce newroutes to datecultural heritage objects, in particular to overcome their intrinsiccomplexity through the development of CSRA strategies.
  • The geologic history of seawater DOC from marine iron oxides
    Item type: Other Conference Item
    Galili, Nir; Bernasconi, Stefano M.; Nissan, Alon; et al. (2023)
    Goldschmidt 2023 Abstract
  • Characteristics of sedimentary organic carbon burial in the shallow conduit portion of source-to-sink sedimentary systems in marginal seas
    Item type: Journal Article
    Tao, Shuqin; Wang, Aijun; Liu, James T.; et al. (2023)
    Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta
    Multistep physical and biological processing of organic matter in marginal seas modifies its composition, sedimentary pathway, and burial efficiency. This study examines how organic geochemical signals pertaining to the source and transformation in surface sediments are transported and preserved in the conduit portion of source-to-sink sedimentary systems in marginal seas such as the Taiwan Strait (TS). The aim is to gain more insight in not only the total OC burial in this highly dynamic region, but also to establish a quantitative assessment of the provenance and age of this carbon. Our study revealed that terrestrial plant wax n-alkanols represent a portion of terrestrial organic matter, characterized by refractory property and strong mobility leading to efficient transfer from the river mouth to the shelf. Soil bacteria-derived branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (br-GDGTs) represent the portion of terrestrial OM characterized by labile properties and low transmissibility restricted within the river mouth under normal conditions, except for episodic and pulse delivery situations. Sedimentary OC in the TS is typically characterized by a large amount of ancient OC with intensive oxidation, indicated by extremely old 14C ages (<13000 ± 180 yr) and lower petrogenic OC content in marine sediments than that of rocks sourced from the land. Diverse sourced OC supply and accumulation patterns in shallow marine conduit systems mainly influenced by complex physical processes. Quantitative source apportionment of sedimentary OC using a ternary mixing model based on the bulk δ13C and Δ14C proxies combined with sediment mass accumulation rates revealed 0.01–3.44, 0.002–3.79, and 0–3.38 mg C cm−2 yr−1 of marine, terrestrial biospheric, and petrogenic OC burial loadings in the TS. Marine OC burial could only explain 30% of net air–sea CO2 sequestration in a narrow conduit system such as the TS, which is characterized by high sediment resuspension and strong hydrodynamic processes due to strong tidal currents and wind-driven circulation. Our findings revealed the net C buried in different marginal seas varies as a function of local couplings between physical processes and biogeochemical characteristics.
  • Unraveling Soil Carbon Dynamics through 14C Analysis of Individual Amino Acids
    Item type: Other Conference Item
    Heusser, Christian; Blattmann, Thomas; Haghipour, Negar; et al. (2023)
    AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
Publications 1 - 10 of 42