Research
The research groups - Oceans
Royal Museum for Central Africa
Section
of Mineralogy and Petrography
Promotor: Prof. Dr. André Luc
Presentation
The Royal Museum
for Central Africa is a federal research institute. The Mineralogy
and Petrography Section of the RMCA is active in geochemistry,
with a strong concern in biogeochemistry since the early 1990s
mostly through development of new proxies. A proxy (or tracer)
is a measurable descriptor which stands in for desired (but unobservable)
variables like past temperature, upwelling and water masses,
nutrient use of phytoplankton, bacterial remineralisation of
carbon... The team has been involved in isotopes, trace and major
elements analyses in waters, carbonate (mollusks, sclerosponges)
and particles. It has also particularly good field knowledge
throughout its focus on study areas located in difficult environments,
such as Central Africa and the Southern Ocean. The section has
unique analytical facilities (shared with the two universities
of Brussels, VUB and ULB): clean room, plasma spectrophotometer
(ICP-AES), several plasma mass spectrometers, including a laser
ablation system (LA-ICP-MS, HR-ICP-MS, MC-ICP-MS). Its most unique,
recently developed, analytical know-how consists of (but is not
restricted to) measuring silicon isotopes with MC-ICP-MS. Research
topics are mainly directed towards environmental biogeochemistry,
carbon and silicon cycles via a multi-proxy approach under the
framework of several Belgian and European networks.
In Antarctica we are involved in performing these advanced chemical
analyses on Southern Ocean (a major actor of the Earth's climate)
water, sediments and particles samples. In particular our aims
are (i) to quantify carbon fluxes in the intermediate and deep
ocean to estimate the oceanic carbon storage capacity (ii) to
better understand the silicon cycle, an important nutrient in
the Southern Ocean for the phytoplankton dominated by diatoms
(unicellular algae building silica tests). Overall the results
from this research help in reducing uncertainties for future
climate change scenarios provided by models.
Activities
Research activities involve the preparation of and participation to sampling campaigns, sample processes and analyses, communication of results in international symposia and via scientific publication in peer-reviewed journals. We also disseminate our expertise to the large public, policy makers and students. Finally our expertise on environmental chemistry is available for specific projects and analyses on various types of samples (soils, industrial waste and materials, archaeology...).
List of projects
- BELCANTO I, BELCANTO II and BELCANTO III
- EUR-OCEANS
Research Group Team
- Promoter: Prof. Dr André, Luc
- PhD researchers: Sophie Opfergelt, Anne-Julie Cavagna
Publication list
Peer-reviewed articles
Cardinal D., F. Dehairs, T. Cattaldo & L. André (2001)
Geochemistry of suspended particles in the Subantarctic and Polar
Front Zones south of Australia: Constraints on export and advection
processes. Journal of Geophysical Research, 106: 31,637-31,656.
Website
Cardinal D., L.Y. Alleman, J. De Jong, K. Ziegler & L. André (2003)
Isotopic composition of silicon measured by multicollector plasma
source mass spectrometry in dry plasma mode. Journal of Analytical
Atomic Spectrometry, 18: 213-218.
Website
Cardinal D., N. Savoye, T.W. Trull, L. André, E.E. Kopczynska & F.
Dehairs (2005) Variations of carbon remineralisation in the Southern
Ocean illustrated by the Baxs proxy. Deep-Sea Research Part I,
52: 355-370.
Website
Cardinal D., L.Y. Alleman, F. Dehairs, N. Savoye, T.W. Trull & L.
André (2005) Relevance of silicon isotopes to Si-nutrient
utilization and Si source assessment in Antarctic waters. Global
Biogeochemical Cycles, 19: GB2007.
Website
Fagel N., F. Dehairs, L. André, G. Bareille & C. Monnin
(2002) Ba distribution in surface Southern Ocean sediments and
export production estimates. Paleoceanography, 17, 1011.
Website
Reports
Dehairs F. et al. (2003) An integrated approach to assess carbon dynamics in the Southern Ocean. In: S. Cashetto (Ed.), Scientific results of the Belgian Scientific Research Programme on the Antarctic - Phase 4 (1997-2001): Vol. I: Marine Biota and Global Change, 135pp.
Wollast R., J.-P. Vanderborght
et al. (2005) The role of the ocean in global change. In : G.
den Ouden and M. Vanderstraeten (Eds.), Belgian global change
research 1990-2002: Assessment and integration report, 111-134.
Website