1. Inter-Laboratory Comparison of Measuring Organic Carbon and Stable Nitrogen Isotopes in Marine Sediments by Elemental Analysis-Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry
- Author
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CHANG Wen-bo, LI Feng, ZHANG Yuan-yuan, and HE Xing-liang
- Subjects
elemental analysis-isotope ratio mass spectrometry ,marine sediments ,organic stable carbon isotopes ,nitrogen stable isotopes ,comparative research ,Geology ,QE1-996.5 ,Ecology ,QH540-549.5 - Abstract
BACKGROUND Organic carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes (δ13C, δ15N) in marine sediments are used as effective indicators to trace the changes of air, temperature, precipitation and other parameters in different geological time. Elemental analysis-isotope ratio mass spectrometry is a reasonable and effective method to measure the composition of organic carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes in marine sediments. At present, many domestic laboratories use the method of element analyzer (EA) and stable isotope ratio mass spectrometer (IRMS) to analyze the stable isotopes of organic carbon and nitrogen. However, the comparison of analytical method and data stability between different laboratories is lacking. The analytical results lack effective traceability, and the process lacks standardization and unification. OBJECTIVES To develop a method for determining organic carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes in marine sediments. METHODS Three newly developed national first-class standard materials (GBW04701, GBW04702, GBW04703) and two international standard materials (EMA-B2152, EMA-B2151) were sent to 10 domestic laboratories, in order to verify the stability, precision and accuracy of EA-IRMS online technology test method through the comparative measurement between laboratories. RESULTS The data of each collaborative laboratory was accurate and stable, and the method had good repeatability and reproducibility. The results showed that precisions of 13C and 15N were better than 0.10‰ and 0.14‰, respectively. CONCLUSIONS Through comparative study, it has been proved that EA-IRMS online technology is suitable for the determination of organic carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes in marine sediments. A suitable method for the determination of marine sediment samples has been preliminarily established.
- Published
- 2020
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