U.S.-France Cooperative Research: Reconstructing Atmospheric Lead Sources of and Fluxes to Urban Coastal Areas

Suny At Stony Brook, Stony Brook NY

Investigators

Abstract

9981488 Cochran This three-year award for U.S.-France collaboration in environmental geochemistry involves J. Kirk Cochran of the State University of New York at Stony Brook and Alain Veron of the Centre Europeen de Recherche et d'Enseignement de Geosciences (CEREGE) in Marseilles, France. The investigators will determine the history of input rates and sources of stable lead to coastal areas. Archived samples from salt marshes in the northeastern United States, and from Italy will be analyzed for isotopes of lead to determine their sources. Previous research by the U.S. investigator has established chronologies of accumulation and lead flux for each site. These samples will be complemented by the collection of two cores from salt marshes located in the Rhone Delta in Southern France. Chronologies and stable lead concentrations from these sites will be analyzed at CEREGE. The U.S. investigator brings to this collaboration expertise in geochronology and use of natural radionuclides as tracers. This will be complemented by French expertise in lead isotopes. The project will advance understanding of sources of coastal atmospheric pollution. This award represents the U.S. side of a joint proposal to the NSF and the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS). NSF will cover travel funds and living expenses for the U.S. investigator to collect samples, work on the analyses of lead, and present a short course in France. The CNRS will support the visits of the French researchers to the United States.