National Environmental Isotope Facility (NEIF)
Lead Research Organisation:
Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre
Department Name: SUERC
Abstract
Radiocarbon is an immensely powerful tool to probe Earth's human and environmental history over the past 50,000 years Radiocarbon science requires infrastructure in order to be at the leading edge, both physical infrastructure such as equipment and laboratories, but as important are the people who provide the expertise, drive method development and new areas of application, and develop systems to ensure data are accessible, interoperable and reusable. The requirements for radiocarbon in environmental sciences necessitate delivery of fundamental capabilities at a national level for the following reasons: (1) breadth of community need for fundamental radiocarbon analyses; (2) the substantial continued investment, both instruments and people, required to be at the leading edge; and (3) the capacity of delivery demanded by the UK research portfolio. Where these requirements exist, national facilities are a demonstrably cost-effective mechanism to deliver and underpin environmental science research and innovation, now and in the future.
The Facility will operate to underpin the UKs environmental research community in areas where radiocarbon analyses are required, facilitating, supporting and encouraging the best research, technology and new ideas. The capabilities and expertise delivered by the Facility are either technically unique within the UK and/or are delivered at a high-standard and capacity and cannot be effectively delivered without national support, and crucially represent long-term value.
The benefits of a national facility are that it will be greater than the sum of its parts. In addition to the direct support of projects and provision of training, sustained support best fit the needs of the project leaders and provide facility staff with a longer-term perspective and understanding of where the major challenges and opportunities are in order to best service the environmental science community. The Facility represents a major forward-looking evolution in the provision of radiocarbon capabilities and expertise for the UK research community in the 21st century, providing increased community innovation and flexibility, whilst retaining the core purpose of underpinning UK science with internationally competitive, state-of-the-art capabilities and expertise.
The Facility will operate to underpin the UKs environmental research community in areas where radiocarbon analyses are required, facilitating, supporting and encouraging the best research, technology and new ideas. The capabilities and expertise delivered by the Facility are either technically unique within the UK and/or are delivered at a high-standard and capacity and cannot be effectively delivered without national support, and crucially represent long-term value.
The benefits of a national facility are that it will be greater than the sum of its parts. In addition to the direct support of projects and provision of training, sustained support best fit the needs of the project leaders and provide facility staff with a longer-term perspective and understanding of where the major challenges and opportunities are in order to best service the environmental science community. The Facility represents a major forward-looking evolution in the provision of radiocarbon capabilities and expertise for the UK research community in the 21st century, providing increased community innovation and flexibility, whilst retaining the core purpose of underpinning UK science with internationally competitive, state-of-the-art capabilities and expertise.
Publications
Blong J
(2020)
Younger Dryas and early Holocene subsistence in the northern Great Basin: multiproxy analysis of coprolites from the Paisley Caves, Oregon, USA
in Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences
Vlok M
(2020)
Two Probable Cases of Infection with Treponema pallidum during the Neolithic Period in Northern Vietnam (ca. 2000-1500 B.C.)
in Bioarchaeology International
Gaydarska B
(2019)
Trypillia Megasites in Context: Independent Urban Development in Chalcolithic Eastern Europe
in Cambridge Archaeological Journal
Sayer E
(2019)
Tropical forest soil carbon stocks do not increase despite 15 years of doubled litter inputs
in Scientific Reports
Loader N
(2019)
Tree ring dating using oxygen isotopes: a master chronology for central England
in Journal of Quaternary Science
Fielding JJ
(2020)
Tracing lake pollution, eutrophication and partial recovery from the sediments of Windermere, UK, using geochemistry and sediment microfabrics.
in The Science of the total environment
D'Alpoim Guedes J
(2020)
Three thousand years of farming strategies in central Thailand
in Antiquity
D'Alpoim Guedes J
(2019)
The wet and the dry, the wild and the cultivated: subsistence and risk management in ancient Central Thailand
in Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences
Chapman J
(2019)
The Origins of Trypillia Megasites
in Frontiers in Digital Humanities
Pearson M
(2021)
The original Stonehenge? A dismantled stone circle in the Preseli Hills of west Wales
in Antiquity
Dumont M
(2020)
The nature of deep overturning and reconfigurations of the silicon cycle across the last deglaciation.
in Nature communications
Roberts D
(2019)
The mixed-bed glacial landform imprint of the North Sea Lobe in the western North Sea
in Earth Surface Processes and Landforms
Reimer P
(2020)
The IntCal20 Northern Hemisphere Radiocarbon Age Calibration Curve (0-55 cal kBP)
in Radiocarbon
Bronk Ramsey C
(2019)
The Importance of Open Access to Chronological Information: The IntChron Initiative
in Radiocarbon
Garralda M
(2019)
The Gravettian child mandible from El Castillo Cave (Puente Viesgo, Cantabria, Spain)
in American Journal of Physical Anthropology
Belousova N
(2020)
The Early Upper Palaeolithic bone industry of the Central Altai, Russia: new evidence from the Kara-Bom site
in Antiquity
Rushby G
(2019)
Testing the mid-Holocene relative sea-level highstand hypothesis in North Wales, UK
in The Holocene
Soulet G
(2021)
Temperature control on CO2 emissions from the weathering of sedimentary rocks
in Nature Geoscience
Corrick EC
(2020)
Synchronous timing of abrupt climate changes during the last glacial period.
in Science (New York, N.Y.)
Briones M
(2020)
Substrate quality and not dominant plant community determines the vertical distribution and C assimilation of enchytraeids in peatlands
in Functional Ecology
Paul A
(2022)
Stocks and biogeochemical cycling of soil-derived nutrients in an ultramafic rain forest in New Caledonia
in Forest Ecology and Management
Wedage O
(2019)
Specialized rainforest hunting by Homo sapiens ~45,000 years ago.
in Nature communications
Description | Radiocarbon dating is the most versatile technique for scientists seeking to precisely date the timing of events and rates of processes in the history of humans and earth systems over the last 50,000 years. Natural abundance and 'bomb' radiocarbon also have wide applications in quantifying the movement of carbon in the environment. The NERC Radiocarbon Laboratory (a component of NEIF- National Environmental Isotope Facility) is internationally recognised and supports, participates in and initiates globally competitive science. This provides a comprehensive service for the NERC research community, including Universities and NERC Centres (e.g. BGS, CEH, BAS, NOC) across a wide range of science areas, including Earth, Marine, Terrestrial and Freshwater, Atmospheric and Polar Science and Science-based Archaeology: • Expertise across a wide spectrum of radiocarbon techniques & applications • Specialist advice at all stages of projects from project inception, applications and grant proposals, field sampling, sample storage and preparation, to data interpretation and publication • Technical developments, often developed collaboratively, to provide leading edge and unique research opportunities to UK researchers • Access to state-of-the art equipment, including cutting-edge AMS analytical equipment (the newly-installed MICADAS and PIMS technology) • Training of students and visiting researchers, including project-customised practical laboratory experience and residential radiocarbon courses |
Exploitation Route | The Facility exists to provide analytical support and scientific expertise for NERC approved projects throughout the UK. Therefore all the findings relate to these projects (c 50-60 per year). The Facility also continuously develops new methods in order to provide UK scientists with cutting-edge techniques for the radiocarbon applications in their projects. Examples include compound-specific amino-acid dating for archaeological bones, novel sampling methods to enable NERC science in otherwise inaccessible, remote and challenging environments, and speciation of organic carbon in complex environmental matrices via techniques available in only a very few (or no) other locations worldwide. |
Sectors | Environment Culture Heritage Museums and Collections |