Horizon 2 & Bobcat LAIR Webinar

Join experts from Nu Instruments, Elemental Scientific Lasers (ESL), and the University of Exeter for a webinar exploring the use of CO₂ laser ablation coupled with isotope ratio mass spectrometry (LA-IRMS) for high-resolution stable isotope analysis.

Joe Ready, Sales Engineer & Product Specialist at Elemental Scientific Lasers and Steve Rablens, Development Engineer at Nu Instruments will provide short introductions to the instrumentation Bobcat LAIR CO₂ Laser and Horizon 2 IRMS respectively.

The main presentation will be delivered by Matthew Mason, PhD candidate at the University of Exeter, who will share results evaluating LA-IRMS as an alternative approach for high-resolution oxygen isotope measurements in bivalve shells.

Evaluating CO2 Laser Ablation IRMS for High-Resolution Marine Palaeoclimate Reconstruction
 
Stable isotope analysis by isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) has long been fundamental to reconstructing past marine environmental change. More recently, sclerochronological approaches using biogenic carbonates, such as bivalve shells, have enabled increasingly high-resolution palaeoclimate reconstructions. However, conventional micromilling techniques can be time-consuming and require relatively large samples, limiting both sample throughput and resolution.
 
In this webinar, we evaluate the potential of laser ablation isotope ratio mass spectrometry (LA-IRMS) as a rapid alternative for stable isotope analysis of marine carbonates, using the long-lived bivalve Glycymeris glycymeris as a case study. By comparing LA-IRMS measurements with data generated using conventional micromilling and IRMS techniques, we assess the ability of LA-IRMS to reproduce oxygen isotope variability across different temporal resolutions. Our results demonstrate the ability of LA-IRMS to resolve subannual oxygen isotope variability in bivalve shells, although the reproduction of isotope data at annual resolution remains an ongoing challenge. We discuss the implications of these findings for the application of LA-IRMS to high-resolution marine palaeoclimate reconstruction.