West Australian Biogeochemistry Centre | Research 

Ensuring sustainable management of water resources is one of the most critical environmental issues faced by many countries around the world.

Our research encompasses a number of projects aimed at understanding the development of groundwater resources, the relative dependency of ecosystems on groundwater versus soil and surface water, and an assessment of the probable impacts of altered hydrology, especially dewatering and salinisation, on ecosystems.

Coupled with modern methods of dating groundwater and characterisation of dissolved organic matter and geochemistry, stable isotope studies (²H/¹H, ¹⁸O/¹⁶O) are a valuable tool for understanding the movement and history of water within a landscape as well as their potential for exploitation. For example, we use measures of ¹⁸O/¹⁶O and ²H/¹H ratios in studies of groundwater systems to provide insights into their meteoric derivation, to identify recharge areas, residence time in the aquifer and mixing with connate, thermal or seawater-derived fluids.

Further information

• Dogramaci S, Skrzypek G. (2015) Unravelling sources of solutes in groundwater of an ancient landscape in NW Australia using stable Sr, H and O isotopes. Chemical Geology. 393–394, 67–78.
• Dogramaci S, Firmani G, Hedley P, Skrzypek G, Grierson PF. (2015) Evaluating recharge to an ephemeral dryland stream using a hydraulic model and water, chloride and isotope mass balance. Journal of Hydrology 521, 520–532.
• Skrzypek G, Mydłowski A, Dogramaci S, Hedley P, Gibson JJ, Grierson PF. (2015) Estimation of evaporative loss based on the stable isotope composition of water using Hydrocalculator. Journal of Hydrology 523, 781–789.
• Fellman JB, Spencer RG, Raymond PA, Pettit NE, Skrzypek G, Hernes PJ, Grierson PF. (2014) Dissolved organic carbon biolability decreases along with its modernization in fluvial networks in an ancient landscape. Ecology 95(9), 2622–2632.
• Fellman JB, Petrone K, Grierson PF. (2013) Leaf litter age, chemical quality and photodegradation control the fate of leachate dissolved organic matter in a dryland river. Journal of Arid Environments 89, 30-37.
• Fellman JB, Pettit NE, Kalic J, Grierson PF. (2013) Influence of stream–floodplain biogeochemical linkages on aquatic foodweb structure along a gradient of stream size in a tropical catchment.  Freshwater Science 32, 217-229.
• Guan H, Zhang X, Skrzypek G, Sun Z. (2013) Deuterium excess variations of rainfall events in a coastal area of South Australia and its relationship with synoptic weather patterns and atmospheric moisture sources. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres 118, 1–16 (DOI:10.1002/jgrd.50137).
• Skrzypek G, Dogramci S, Grierson P. (2013) Geochemical and hydrological processes controlling groundwater salinity of a large inland wetland of northwest Australia. Chemical Geology 357, 164-177.
• Dogramaci S, Skrzypek G, Dodson W, Grierson PF. (2012) Stable isotope and hydrochemical evolution of groundwater in the semi-arid Hamersley Basin of sub-tropical northwest Australia. Journal of Hydrology 475, 281-293.
• Fraser MW, Kendrick GA, Grierson PF, Fourqurean JW, Vanderklift MA, Walker DI. (2012) Nutrient status of seagrasses cannot be inferred from system-scale distribution of phosphorus in Shark Bay, Western Australia. Marine & Freshwater Research 63, 1015–1026.
• Pettit NE, Davies T, Fellman, JB, Grierson PF, Warfe DM, Davies PM. (2012) Leaf litter chemistry, decomposition and assimilation by macroinvertebrates in two tropical streams. Hydrobiologia 680, 63-77.
• Price R, Skrzypek G, Grierson PF, Swart PK, Fourqurean JW. (2012) The use of stable isotopes of oxygen and hydrogen to identify water sources of two hypersaline estuaries with different hydrologic regimes. Marine & Freshwater Research 63, 952–966.
• Fellman JB, Dogramaci S, Skrzypek G, Dodson W, Grierson PF. (2011) Hydrologic control of dissolved organic matter biogeochemistry in pools of a subtropical dryland river. Water Resources Research 47, W06501, doi: 10.1029/2010WR010275.
• Fellman JB, Petrone K, Grierson PF. (2011) Source, biogeochemical cycling, and fluorescence characteristics of dissolved organic matter in an agro-urban estuary. Limnology and Oceanography 56, 243-256.
• Petrone K, Fellman JB, Hood E, Donn MJ, Grierson PF. (2011) Fluorescence characteristics and bioavailability of dissolved organic matter in agro-urban coastal streams. Journal of Geophysical Research 116, G01028, doi: 10.1029/2010JG001537.

We investigate fundamental processes controlling carbon and nutrient stores in plants, soils and sediments within natural and managed ecosystems.

We also study how factors such as mineral surface adsorption, environmental conditions and disturbance by drought and fire, mediate fluxes of organic carbon and nutrients.

Our aim is to accurately assess the chemical nature and source of sequestered carbon in long-term residence pools and to properly assess the organic carbon storage or loss potential of specific land uses and climate change. Such approaches are integral to understanding the productivity of both terrestrial and aquatic systems.

Further information

• Fellman JB, Spencer RG, Raymond PA, Pettit NE, Skrzypek G, Hernes PJ, Grierson PF. (2014) Dissolved organic carbon biolability decreases along with its modernization in fluvial networks in an ancient landscape. Ecology 95(9), 2622–2632.
• Mallick M, Dutta S, Greenwood PF. (2014) Molecular characterization of fossil and extant dammar resin extracts: Insights into diagenetic fate of sesqui-and triterpenoids. International Journal of Coal Geology. 121, 129-136.
• Pages A, Grice K, Vacher M, Welsh DT, Teasdale PR, Bennett WW, Greenwood P (2014) Characterising microbial communities and processes in a modern stromatolite (Shark Bay) using lipid biomarkers and two-dimensional distributions of porewater solutes. Environmental Microbiology. DOI: 10.1111/1462-2920.12378.
• Plant EL, Smernik RJ, van Leeuwen J, Greenwood P, Macdonald LM. (2014) Changes in the nature of dissolved organics during pulp and paper mill wastewater treatment: a multivariate statistical study combining data from three analytical techniques. Environmental Science and Pollution Research. 21 (6), 4265-4275.
• Fellman JB, Pettit NE, Kalic J, Grierson PF. (2013). Influence of stream–floodplain biogeochemical linkages on aquatic foodweb structure along a gradient of stream size in a tropical catchment.  Freshwater Science 32, 217-229.
• Fellman JB, Petrone K, Grierson PF.  (2013) Leaf litter age, chemical quality and photodegradation control the fate of leachate dissolved organic matter in a dryland river. Journal of Arid Environments 89, 30-37.
• Pettit NE, Davies T, Fellman, JB, Grierson PF, Warfe DM, Davies PM. (2012) Leaf litter breakdown and food web structure in two Australian tropical streams of contrasting hydrology. Hydrobiologia 680, 63-77.
• Bougoure J, Brundrett MD and Grierson PF. (2010) The ultimate subterranean symbiosis: carbon and nitrogen supply to the underground orchid. New Phytologist 186, 947-956.
• Greenwood PF, Lengkeek NA, Piggott MJ and Pierce K. (2009) Structural identification and mass spectral interpretation of C3n highly branched alkanes in sediment and aquatic extracts and evidence for their anthropogenic origin. Organic Geochemistry 40, 1055-1062.
• McIntyre RES, Adams MA, Ford DJ and Grierson PF. (2009) Rewetting and litter addition influence mineralisation and microbial communities in soils from a semi-arid intermittent stream. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 41, 92-101.
• Ford DJ, Cookson WR, Adams MA and Grierson PF. (2007) Role of soil drying in nitrogen mineralization and microbial community function in semi-arid grasslands of north-west Australia. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 39, 1557-1569.

We undertake research on the effects of environmental change (reduced or altered water availability) on vegetation through isotopic analysis of plant material (¹³C/¹²C and ¹⁸O/¹⁶O) and water (¹⁸O/¹⁶O and ²H/¹H).

As part of this, we seek to understand the processes that lead to fractionation of water and carbon in relation to both short- and long-term changes in water availability.

Our research shows that patterns of tree ring growth coupled with δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O analyses of cellulose of individual rings can provide an accurate proxy of past rainfall and temperatures in Australia. We are using analyses of δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O of mosses and liverworts to develop reliable archives of past temperature changes in Australia, New Zealand and northern Europe.

We have also recently used isotopic approaches based on the δ¹⁸O of phosphates from bones and teeth found in Neanderthal dining scraps to estimate temperatures of Central Europe in the Pleistocene epoch.

Further information

• Brodribb TJ, Bowman DMJS, Grierson PF, Murphy BP, Nichols S, Prior LD. (2013) Conservative water management in the widespread conifer genus Callitris. AoB PLANTS 5: plt052; (DOI:10.1093/aobpla/plt052)
• Mallick M, Dutta S, Greenwood PF. (2014) Molecular characterization of fossil and extant dammar resin extracts: Insights into diagenetic fate of sesqui-and triterpenoids. International Journal of Coal Geology. 121, 129-136.
• Pages A, Grice K, Vacher M, Welsh DT, Teasdale PR, Bennett WW, Greenwood P (2014) Characterising microbial communities and processes in a modern stromatolite (Shark Bay) using lipid biomarkers and two-dimensional distributions of porewater solutes. Environmental Microbiology. DOI: 10.1111/1462-2920.12378.
• Smith S, Mauldin R, Munoz CM, Hard R, Debajyoti P, Skrzypek G, Villanueva P, Kemp L. (2014) Exploring the use of stable carbon isotope ratios in short-lived leporids for local paleoecological reconstruction. Proceedings of the 38th International Symposium on Archaeometry (ISA 2010, Tampa). Tykot, R. (Ed.). Open Journal of Archaeometry. DOI: 10.4081/arc.2014.5306.
• Gergis J, Gallant AJE, Braganza K, Karoly DJ, Allen K, Cullen LE, D’Arrigo R, Goodwin I, Grierson PF, McGregor S. (2012) On the long-term context of the 1997–2009 ‘Big Dry’ in south-eastern Australia: insights from a 206-year multi-proxy rainfall reconstruction. Climatic Change 111, 923-944.
• Prior LD, Grierson PF, McCaw WL, Tng DYP, Nichols SC, Bowman DMJS. (2012) Variation in stem growth of the Australian conifer, Callitris columellaris, across the world’s driest and least fertile vegetated continent. Trees - Structure and Function 26, 1169-1179.
• Prober SM, Thiele KR, Rundel PW, Yates CJ. Berry SL, Byrne M, Christidis L, Gosper CR, Grierson PF, Lemson K, Lyons T, Macfarlane C, O’Connor MH, John K. Scott JK, Standish RJ, Stock WD, van Etten EJB, Wardell-Johnson GW, Watson A (2012) Facilitating adaptation of biodiversity to climate change: a conceptual framework applied to the world’s largest Mediterranean woodland. Climatic Change 110, 227–248.
• Skrzypek G, Engel Z, Chuman T, Šefrn L. (2011) Distichia peat – a new stable isotope paleoclimate proxy for the Andes. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 307, 298–308.
• Skrzypek G, Wiśniewski A, Grierson PF. (2011) How cold was it for Neanderthals moving to Central Europe during warm phases of the last glaciation? Quaternary Science Reviews 30, 481-487.
• Engel Z, Skrzypek G, Paul D, Drzewicki W, Nyvlt D. (2010) Sediment lithology and stable isotope composition of organic matter in a core from a cirque in the Krkonose Mountains, Czech Republic. Journal of Paleolimnology 43, 609-624.
• Sgherza C, Cullen LE, Grierson PF. (2010) Climate relationships with tree-ring width and δ13C of three Callitris species from semiarid woodlands in south-western Australia. Australian Journal of Botany 58, 175-187.
• Skrzypek G, Jezierski P, Szynkiewicz A. (2010) Preservation of primary stable isotope signatures of peat-forming plants during early decomposition – observation along an altitudinal transect. Chemical Geology 273, 238–249. 
• Skrzypek G, Baranowska-Kącka A, Keller-Sikora A, Jędrysek MO. (2009) Analogous trends in pollen percentages and carbon stable isotope composition of Holocene peat – possible interpretation for palaeoclimate studies. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 156, 507–518.
• Skrzypek G, Akagi T, Drzewicki W, Jędrysek MO. (2008) Stable isotope studies of moss sulfur and sulfate from bog surface waters. Geochemical Journal 42, 481-492.
• Skrzypek G, Paul D, Wojtuń B. (2008) Stable isotope composition of plants and peat from Arctic mire and geothermal area in Iceland. Polish Polar Research 29, 365-376.
• Cullen LE and Grierson PF. (2007) A stable oxygen, but not carbon, isotope chronology of Callitris columellaris reflects recent climate change in north-western Australia. Climatic Change 85, 213-222.

We investigate current problems in the application of stable isotope-based methods to questions in global change biology and ecology in marine and terrestrial ecosystems.

In doing so, we seek to build on the collective knowledge, skills and experience of all researchers and collaborators.

We focus on two key themes:

1. Food source studies and analysis of marine and freshwater organisms (shellfish, crustaceans, fish through small invertebrates to the primary producers, seagrass and algae or higher plants) by analysis of blood and muscle, and shells as well as plant tissue for δ¹⁵N, δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O to explore trophic structure.
2. Improved repeatability in preparation and analysis of plant material, organic matter (aquatic and terrestrial), water samples and decomposer organisms for ecophysiological and biogeochemical cycling studies at small scales.

Further information

• Bougoure J, Ludwig M, Brundrett M, Cliff J, Clode P, Kilburn M, Grierson P. (2014) High-resolution secondary ion mass spectrometry analysis of carbon dynamics in mycorrhizas formed by an obligately myco-heterotrophic orchid. Plant, Cell & Environment DOI: 10.1111/pce.12230
• Dodson J, Grierson PF, Bennett J, Melo de Howard S, Wong H. (2013) Nuclear science and the story of a preserved leaf from a copy of the Great Bible. Journal of Archaeological Science 40, 1700-1702.
• Fraser MW, Kendrick GA, Grierson PF, Fourqurean JW, Vanderklift MA, Walker DI. (2012). Nutrient status of seagrasses cannot be inferred from system-scale distribution of phosphorus in Shark Bay, Western Australia. Marine & Freshwater Research 63, 1015–1026.
• Mallick M, Dutta S, Greenwood PF. (2014) Molecular characterization of fossil and extant dammar resin extracts: Insights into diagenetic fate of sesqui-and triterpenoids. International Journal of Coal Geology. 121, 129-136.
• Pages A, Grice K, Vacher M, Welsh DT, Teasdale PR, Bennett WW, Greenwood P (2014) Characterising microbial communities and processes in a modern stromatolite (Shark Bay) using lipid biomarkers and two-dimensional distributions of porewater solutes. Environmental Microbiology. DOI: 10.1111/1462-2920.12378.
• Pettit NE, Davies T, Fellman, JB, Grierson PF, Warfe DM and Davies PM. (2012) Leaf litter breakdown and food web structure in two Australian tropical streams of contrasting hydrology. Hydrobiologia 680, 63-77. doi: 10.1007/s10750-011-0903-1.
• Plant EL, Smernik RJ, van Leeuwen J, Greenwood P, Macdonald LM. (2014) Changes in the nature of dissolved organics during pulp and paper mill wastewater treatment: a multivariate statistical study combining data from three analytical techniques. Environmental Science and Pollution Research. 21 (6), 4265-4275.
• Smith S, Mauldin R, Munoz CM, Hard R, Debajyoti P, Skrzypek G, Villanueva P, Kemp L. (2014) Exploring the use of stable carbon isotope ratios in short-lived leporids for local paleoecological reconstruction. Proceedings of the 38th International Symposium on Archaeometry (ISA 2010, Tampa). Tykot, R. (Ed.). Open Journal of Archaeometry. DOI: 10.4081/arc.2014.5306.