EVENT: Using Natures Endowments: isotope tracing of sediment-nutrient fluxes in rivers and near shore environments

Long-lived ‘natural' isotope systems have been used extensively in the Earth Sciences as tracers of crustal and deeper mantle processes. Applications in the environmental sciences have been much more restricted and new isotope facilities being established will bring these capabilities to UWA. Here a number of examples are presented of using long-lived radiogenic isotope systems such as 143Nd/144N and 87Sr/86Sr combined with trace element geochemistry as tracers of sediments/nutrients provenances in a range of environments. Examples that will be highlighted include the Ord River and Argyle Dam of WA, Chaffey Dam in the Peel River system of NSW, the inshore reefs of the Great Barrier Reef and the Mountain-lowland debate of deforestation and sediment transport in the Upper Ganga catchment.