Biography

During a degree in Environmental Sciences at UEA I spent a year at the University of Miami where I gained my first training in mass spectrometry in Peter Swart’s stable isotope laboratory at RSMAS (the Rosenstiel School for Marine and Atmospheric  Sciences).    I studied CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) in groundwater during my PhD, assessing their potential for determining the recharge age and flowpaths of groundwater.

I have subsequently worked on a number of research projects including a risk assessment, using tracer tests and groundwater modelling of two public water supply boreholes in Suffolk (Bateman et al., 2001), analysing nitrous oxide concentrations in groundwater in order to estimate the flux of this important greenhouse gas from UK aquifers (Hiscock et al., 2003) and a Food Standards Agency funded project with Simon Kelly investigating the potential for discriminating between organically and conventionally grown crops using stable isotope and multi-element analysis (Bateman et al., 2005; Bateman & Kelly, 2007; Bateman et al., 2007).

More recently, working principally with Jan Kaiser, I have been investigating the isotope signature of nitrate in atmospheric aerosol samples from the remote troposphere.   Together with Laura Bristow, Sarah Wexler and Paul Dennis, we have established in our laboratory the bacterial method (based on Sigman et al., 2001 and subsequent work by others) for stable isotope analysis of nitrate. The method uses denitrifying bacteria to convert nitrate in samples to nitrous oxide (N₂O).  During fully automated analysis by continuous flow mass spectrometry, the N₂O is thermally decomposed to N₂ and O₂ over a gold catalyst and the nitrogen and oxygen then separated by gas chromatography allowing  ¹⁷O/¹⁶O, ¹⁸O/¹⁶O and ¹⁵N/¹⁴N determination from a single sample.

Working alongside Jan Kaiser and Paul Dennis, I am currently involved in a project looking at trace gases in an ice core from Greenland (sampled during the NEEM ice core drilling program).  With other colleagues here at UEA, we will look at the rise of gaseous pollutants (carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, halocarbons, organic nitrates etc.) in the atmosphere over the last century from the record preserved in the ice core.  I will be measuring CO mixing ratios as well as ¹³C/¹²C and ¹⁸O/¹⁶O isotope ratios of small firn air and ice core samples and the oxygen isotope anomaly (Δ¹⁷O) in large firn air samples.  These will be the first firn air measurements of CO isotope ratios in the northern hemisphere and this multiple isotope approach will allow us to reconstruct CO emissions providing information on the relative importance of different CO sources and sinks.

Publications

Bateman AS, Hiscock KM and Atkinson TC (2001) Qualitative risk assessment using tracer tests and groundwater modelling in an unconfined sand and gravel aquifer, In New Approaches characterizing groundwater flow, Sieler & Wohnlich (Eds), Swets & Zeitlinger Lisse

Hiscock KM, Bateman AS et al. (2003) Indirect emissions of nitrous oxide from regional aquifers in the United Kingdom, Environ. Sci. Technol. 37, 3507-3512

Bateman AS, Kelly SD & Jickells TJ (2005) Nitrogen isotope relationships between crops and fertilizer: implications for using nitrogen isotope analysis as an indicator of agricultural regime, J. Agric. Food Chem. 53, 5760-5765

Bateman AS, Kelly SD (2007) Fertilizer nitrogen isotope signatures, Isotopes in Environmental and Health Studies, 43, No. 3, 237–247

Bateman AS, Kelly SD & Woolfe M (2007) Nitrogen isotope composition of organically and conventionally grown crops, J. Agric. Food Chem. 55, 2664-2670