Abstract
The atmosphere is a complex and dynamic component of our natural environment; it has intricate and multiple interactions with the other “spheres” of the Earth, including the geosphere, the hydrosphere, and the biosphere. The isotopes of the elements present in the atmosphere fractionate and the record of past climate changes can be found in ancient ice or in sedimentary rocks. In this chapter, we will also discuss mass-independent fractionation.
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Further Reading
Further Reading
Unfortunately, for some reason, there are very few books that exist specifically on the application of isotopes in the study of the atmosphere. Rather, the topic is covered as parts of other books, and here is a short selection:
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Isotopes in the Earth Sciences, H.-G. Attendorn and R. Bowen, Springer Science, 1988, ISBN 978-041-253710-3. The relevant chapter is 9, Environmental isotopes in the atmosphere and hydrosphere.
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Stable Isotope Geochemistry, J. Hoefs, Springer-Verlag, 1997, ISBN 3-540-61126-6. The only chapter of interest for this topic is 3.9 Atmosphere.
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Stable Isotopes and Biosphere—Atmosphere Interactions: Processes and Biological Controls, L.B. Flanagan, J.R. Ehleringer, and D.E. Pataki, Editors, Elsevier, 2004, ISBN 978-008-052528-0. Most relevant are Chaps. 15 and 16.
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Helium Isotopes in Nature, B.A. Mamyrin and I.N. Tolstikhin, Elsevier, 2013, ISBN 978-148-328980-9. Chapter 10 is the most relevant.
Questions
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What is the current atmosphere made of? When and how was it formed? How many atmospheres were there before and what gases were they dominated by?
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What is the vertical structure of the atmosphere and how does it affect the isotopic composition of its constituent gases?
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What is mass-independent fractionation? Where does it occur and why? How can we detect and quantify it? The isotopes of which elements are typically affected by it? How can we detect in the rock record?
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How, and in what way, can isotopes inform us about past climate changes? What isotopes and what sort of material do we use for that? How can we calculate paleotemperatures?
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Alexandre, P. (2020). Atmosphere and Climate. In: Isotopes and the Natural Environment. Springer Textbooks in Earth Sciences, Geography and Environment. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33652-3_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33652-3_6
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