Carbon Archives - The Sciku Project

September 16, 2022September 17, 2022

Diamond Rain

Does Neptune ever
feel lonely, with a wall of
diamonds round it’s heart?

Diamonds might be precious but they’re composed of carbon, an element that’s common here on Earth and throughout the universe.

Under the right conditions (pressure and heat) carbon turns into diamonds. Marvin Ross predicted in 1981 that such conditions might be found in the mantels of the Solar System’s ice giants, Neptune and Uranus.

Recent research has supported this, with laser shock experiments on polystyrene performed by Kraus et al. (2017) replicating the conditions approximately 10,000km below the surfaces of Neptune and Uranus. Their experiments created nanodiamonds, supporting evidence that diamond precipitation occurs in the mantels of these planets.

Now further research has strengthened this evidence. The earlier studies used pure hyrdrocarbon systems (polystyrene is C₈H₈) but the interiors of Neptune and Uranus are more complex than that, consisting mainly of a dense fluid mixture of water (H₂O), methane (CH₄), and ammonia (NH₃).

To understand diamond formation under more complex conditions similar to those found on Neptune and Uranus, Zhiyu et al. (2022) investigated diamond formation using polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastics (C₁₀H₈O₄). The researchers found that diamond formation is likely to be enhanced by the presence of oxygen, which in their research accelerated the splitting of the carbon and hydrogen.

Under the conditions found on Neptune and Uranus it’s likely that much larger diamonds would be formed, potentially millions of carats in weight. Over millennia these vast diamonds are predicted to sink slowly through the icy layers of the mantel before melting near the cores, creating an ever changing layer of diamonds around the cores of the planets.

The latest research may also explain another peculiarity about Neptune and Uranus: their unusual magnetic fields. Under the conditions that form diamonds in the mantel, the researchers also found evidence that superionic water might be created. Superionic water conducts electric current and is likely to impact the planets’ magnetic fields.

In addition to learning more about the Universe, there are practical implications for us on Earth resulting from the research too. Nanodiamonds have a range of important uses, including in medical sensors, non-invasive surgery, sustainable manufacturing, and quantum electronics. This latest research points the way towards a new way of fabricating nanodiamonds for such uses.

An Evening in the Lab by Dr Bhavin Siritanaratkul

In mid-2021 The Sciku Project teamed up with the Literature and Science Hub at the University of Liverpool to run the ‘Research in Verse Poetry Competition’, open to staff and postgraduate research students across the university to submit poems about their research subject. The competition saw poems addressing all sorts of topics, ranging from gravity to slavery to life in the lab.

Dr Bhavin Siritanaratkul’s poem ‘An Evening in the Lab’ was praised by the judges as a notable entry:

An evening in the lab

Quiet corridors, empty desks
The light patter of rain
Graphs on my screen, a tangle of lines
A fog on my brain

Discarded reactions, black lumps of carbon
The products of my labour
Wrong trends, unequal sums
This week’s experiments, a failure

Replace elements, reroute gas lines
New patterns and ideas converge
Remake electrodes, repeat measurements
A hazy plan, outlines emerge

Darkened skies, unyielding rain
But gone was my sorrow
Lightened steps, a clear mind
Decision made, new experiments tomorrow!

Background

My research is in the electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide, with the dream to use renewable electricity to convert carbon dioxide back to valuable fuels and chemicals. The poem was written while I was looking for a break in the evening when none of my experiments were working.

Dr Bhavin Siritanaratkul is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Liverpool with a focus on carbon dioxide reduction. You can connect with him on Twitter here: @BhavinSiri

November 16, 2021November 16, 2021

Peat-based Haiku for COP26 by Abby McSherry and The CANN Project

The CANN project (Collaborative Action for the Natura Network) is a cross-border environment project which aims to improve the condition of protected bog and wetland habitats found within Northern Ireland, the Border Region of Ireland and Scotland, allowing the region to meet key EU biodiversity targets and ensuring the future of these internationally important habitats and species. The CANN project is supported by the European Union’s INTERREG VA Programme, managed by the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB). It is led by Newry, Mourne and Down District Council.

The CANN project focuses on the conservation and restoration of seven habitat types which are protected as Special Areas of Conservation under the EU Habitats Directive: Alkaline Fens, Blanket Bog, Active Raised Bog, Marl Lakes, Calcareous Fens, Transition Mire & Quaking Bogs. These habitats are identified as being important in ensuring the survival of at risk plants and wildlife, and for promoting and sustaining biodiversity from a local to an international scale.

The CANN project – led by Abby McSherry, the project’s Communications and Outreach Officer – decided to celebrate COP26 by tweeting a Haiku-a-day on the subject of peat’s role in combatting climate change in the run-up to the meeting in November 2021. Below is a small sample of these fantastic haiku. The entire collection has been compiled in a booklet freely available on the CANN project website here.

Day 5

Sphagnum naturally produces phenolic compounds that slow the decomposition of the plants that make up peat. Preventing peat decomposition will help keep the carbon it holds locked away.

Day 10

A raised bog often has a water table perched higher than the surrounding land, which can be hard to understand unless you visualise it as a water droplet perched on the land. It is delicately balanced, and that balance can shift.

Day 20

Carbon is locked up effectively in other habitats too. Lowland fens and mires are significant sinks too and are under even greater threat from damage as they are often surrounded by valuable arable land.

Day 25

Across the world, peat covers just 3% of the land’s surface, but stores one-third of the Earth’s soil carbon, not just a sticking plaster, but potentially a cure for what ails us. If we care for it, it will care for us.

Mapping Seagrass Loss

Quantifying our
marine meadows – past, present.
A threadbare carpet.

Everyone knows their own science interests, the areas of research that they find thought-provoking. Sometimes I think that there are also subjects that we don’t realise we find fascinating. I never knew I was interested in seagrasses but this is the third sciku I’ve published about them, the second that I’ve written myself. It’s curious that I wouldn’t have known this about myself before today when this research paper caught my eye.

Seagrasses are hugely important ecosystems. In the sciku ‘Forgotten value’ I wrote about how seagrass meadows provide a nursery habitat for over a fifth of the world’s largest 25 fisheries. And as Dr Phil Colarusso showed with his sciku ‘Blue Carbon’, seagrass meadows collect and sequester large amounts of carbon, removing it from the global carbon cycle. As a result seagrass meadows are referred to as blue carbon habitats, along with salt marshes and mangroves.

Today’s sciku is based on a study by Green et al (2021), which examines the historical loss of seagrasses from the waters around the United Kingdom. By scrutinising multiple accounts from as early as 1831 and using data collected from 1900 onwards the researchers were able to estimate the UK’s seagrass losses. It makes for sobering reading:

“At least 44% of United Kingdom’s seagrasses have been lost since 1936, 39% since the 1980’s. However, losses over longer time spans may be as high as 92%.”

The research shows that the UK currently has only 8,493 hectares of seagrass meadows remaining. That’s approximated 0.9 Mt (million tonnes) of carbon, equivalent to around £22 million in the current carbon market. Whilst that may seem a lot, it’s worth considering that historic seagrass meadows could have stored 11.5 Mt of carbon, supporting around 400 million fish.

These losses are catastrophic but the information from this study can be used to inform future monitoring and restoration efforts. What’s more, by quantifying the benefits we gain from seagrass meadows as well as what we’ve lost from their disappearance, the findings also provide an impetus for improved conservation efforts, beyond ‘softer’ arguments such improving biodiversity.

Original research: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2021.629962

June 7, 2020November 20, 2020

Blue Carbon by Dr. Phil Colarusso

Climate change buffer
Particles settle in grass
Seagrass meadows rule
By Phil Colarusso

Seagrass meadows collect and sequester large amounts of carbon in the sediments below the meadows. The carbon accumulates through 2 different pathways. First, through photosynthesis and tissue growth, seagrasses extract carbon from the water column and incorporate it into its own tissues. The root and rhizome structures and some cast leaf material end up being incorporated into the sediments. In most cases, this provides less than half of the carbon found in those sediments. The majority of the carbon in the sediments originates from outside of the meadow. The canopy of the meadow functions as a filter, facilitating the settlement of organic particles as the tide passes over the meadow going in and out.

As long as the meadow stays intact, the carbon in the sediments remains isolated and out of the global carbon cycle. Data shows that the age of carbon in meadows can be hundreds of years old. Seagrass meadows, salt marsh and mangroves all perform the same carbon sequestration function and collectively are referred to as blue carbon habitats. This is still a relatively young field of research.

In the above photo, you can see the seafloor in the foreground, which is primarily sandy cobble. The eelgrass meadow has a dark organic layer indicating the large carbon component that has accumulated due to the presence of the plants.

Further reading on seagrass blue carbon: https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1477

Dr. Phil Colarusso is a marine biologist with US EPA Region I. He has been working on eelgrass restoration, conservation and research for 31 years. He and his team just recently had a paper on carbon sequestration rates in eelgrass in New England accepted for publication.

Interested in seagrass meadows? They’re also hugely important for the world’s fisheries. Find out more in the sciku Forgotten Value here. You can also check out Phil’s sciku Invasive Species and Diving for Science.

April 9, 2020June 7, 2020

Whale shark

Sir Fish of the Stars.
Legacy of violence
reveals your true age.

The whale shark is the largest known fish species on the planet, with the longest specimen recorded at 18.8 meters. These gentle giants swim slowly through tropical waters, filter feeding on plankton and small fishes. No one is clear on how long-lived they are – like all sharks they lack the bony structures (otoliths) that are normally used to assess age in other fish species. Yet researchers now think they have the answer, and it lies in the legacy of the cold war.

Whale shark vertebrate have growth bands that increase as they age, rather like tree rings. The trouble is that without knowing how rapidly these bands form it is hard to use them to work out the age of a whale shark. Yet researchers have worked out a useful method of providing a scale for the growth bands by using the effects of nuclear weapons testing.

In the 1950s and 1960s nuclear bomb tests were carried out by countries on both sides of the Cold War, including in the atmosphere. The result of these tests is that the levels of the naturally occurring radioactive element carbon-14 temporarily increased, entering the food web – including whale shark vertebrate.

Ong et al. (2020) used radiocarbon assays of the growth bands of vertebrate from 20 whale sharks caught by the Taiwanese fishery before it was closed in 2007. They found the sampled whale sharks ranged in age from 15 to 50, and that growth bands appear to form annually. The importance of this is key to conservation efforts as understanding population structure is fundamental to understanding threats to the populations.

A note about ‘Whale shark’: Their size and nature mean that whale sharks are widely respected around the world, even featuring on the 100-peso note in the Philippines. Whale sharks are called ‘marokintana’ in Madagascar, meaning ‘many stars’ in reference to the white markings on their dark backs, whilst in Vietnam they are known as ‘ca ong’ – literally translated as ‘sir fish’.

Original research: http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2020.00188

August 14, 2018June 7, 2020

Oh ketchup packet!

How to get the last sauce out?

Hydrocarbon films!

Waste from packaging where food products can’t be completely extracted builds up. Now research by Mukherjee et al (2018) suggests a solution might be at hand. The researchers found that hydrocarbon-based polymer films can be stably impregnated with vegetable oils. The resulting material is slippery and durable, ideal for the inside of packaging to reduce food sticking and waste.

Whilst this sounds high-tech the researchers were actually inspired by the pitcher plant which uses a slippery coating on its leaves to capture visiting insects.

Original research: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-29823-7

Tag: Carbon