Seminar

Abstract

Chemical analyses of trace species present in ice cores are routinely used to investigate the impact of natural variation and anthropogenic influence on past environment and climate. Much of this previous work has focused on measuring the inorganic species in the cores, including sulfate, nitrate, ammonium, and black carbon. Characterization and quantification of the organic species has proven more difficult, in part due to the chemical complexity and low abundance of the organic compounds. In this work, we use high-resolution mass spectrometry to measure the inorganic and organic species present in an ice core from Northern Greenland that spans from 269 AD to 2013 AD. We examine the bulk organic composition and use tracer ions and co-variance with inorganic species to identify how the organic matter is influenced by biomass burning, marine emissions, and anthropogenic emissions.