Two new laboratory spaces in the Department of Geology & Environmental Science have been fully renovated for organic and stable isotope biogeochemistry under the direction of faculty member Dr. Josef Werne. The new labs have all the necessary equipment for the wet chemical extraction and preparation of molecular samples, including an automated solvent extraction system. These laboratories are also equipped with a full suite of state-of-the-art instrumentation, including gas chromatograph/mass spectrometers (GC/MS) and liquid chromatograph/mass spectrometer (LC/MS) for molecular quantification and identification. The lab also has a pair of stable isotope ratio mass spectrometers with GC and elemental analyzer inlet devices. This system provides the capability to analyze C, H, O, N, and S in bulk and molecular organic samples in this new laboratory, including the major and minor stable isotopes of sulfur (32S, 33S, 34S, and 36S).

Dr. Werne’s research group uses a combination of organic and stable isotopic biogeochemical techniques to investigate the biogeochemical record of environmental change preserved in aquatic sedimentary systems - especially lake and ocean sediments.  Specific organic compounds called biomarkers, or molecular fossils, can be traced to the organism that produced them.  By looking at organic remains in sediments, his group can identify variations in the surrounding vegetation (trees and grasses), the aquatic phytoplanktonic community, as well as the micobial community (bacteria and archaea) that have occurred in the past, and use this information to understand global climate and environmental change. His group also studies modern environments to determine how these systems are functioning now so that they can use this information together with the information from past environments found in the sediments to try to understand local and global climate change in the past. Current projects include sulfur isotope biogeochemistry in sulfidic lakes in the USA and Canada considered modern analogs of the Precambrian ocean, development of Pleistocene paleoclimate reconstructions and their link with human societies in southwestern North America (New Mexico, Arizona, Mexico), western South America (Chile, Peru) and East Africa (Malawi, Kenya, Ethiopia), and the development of molecular isotopic proxies for past temperature and hydrology.