Anthony Chappaz
Central Michigan University, MI·Earth & Environmental Science
Many chemical elements behave differently depending on how much oxygen is present. Elements left behind in sediments can therefore act as records of past oxygen levels and biological activity.
- Fields
Earth & Environmental Science
Chemistry
- Topics
uranium
U(V)
biogeochemistry
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Apr 2027
What they work on
- Track the newly recognized uranium form U(+V) and determine its role in uranium burial in low-oxygen marine sediments, using laboratory experiments on uranium phases relevant to the sea floor.
- Relate uranium's chemical form and burial pathways to whole-rock uranium chemistry and isotope composition in modern organic-rich sediments and ancient shales.
- Develop a model that predicts uranium chemistry from contextual information, to improve reconstructions of past ocean oxygen.
- Reconstruct how natural Holocene climate change affected productivity, nutrients and oxygen conditions in Lakes Superior, Huron and Erie. The approach uses mercury isotopes, nutrient isotopes and trace elements measured in piston sediment cores.
- Test whether differences within and between lakes reflect regional environmental feedbacks, and how post-burial chemical changes and local conditions affect these geochemical records.
More about the research
Reading these records correctly requires knowing how the elements are buried. Two collaborative projects apply this approach in different settings: the global ocean, using uranium, and the Great Lakes over the roughly 11,700 years since the last ice age, a period called the Holocene.
Why it matters
Better interpretation of uranium records could improve estimates of oxygen in Earth's early oceans and atmosphere, help link environmental change to the evolution of life, and inform rock dating, water-quality work and the search for critical minerals. A record of the Great Lakes before human influence gives a baseline for judging today's pollution, nutrient loading and climate change in the largest lake system on Earth.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Lucien Nana Yobo
Texas A&M University-College Station, TX·Earth & Environmental Science
Determine the timing, duration and eruption rates of the Caribbean Large Igneous Province by U-Pb dating of zircon crystals with CA-ID-TIMS, using ash layers from ocean drilling cores and Colombian field sections.
Catherine Davis
North Carolina State University, NC·Earth & Environmental Science
Measure which particle types planktic foraminifera collected off U.S. coasts gather, how quickly they clump them, and how this changes the sinking and carbon export of marine snow, using laboratory cultures.
Yair Rosenthal
Rutgers University-New Brunswick, NJ·Earth & Environmental Science
Reconstruct movements of the Southern Westerly Winds during the Holocene and five earlier interglacials (MIS 5e, 9e, 11c, 13, 19) using Chilean Margin sediments from site J1001.
The school
Central Michigan University: 2 labs on PI Pages, $27M a year on research, 76 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
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