Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory  61 Route 9W Palisades, NY 10964 (845) 365-8707 schlosser@ldeo.columbia.edu http://eesc.columbia.edu/faculty/schlosser.html

Research Interest

Human impact on our environment has created a variety of societal problems that need solutions based on thorough scientific understanding of our natural systems.

I have focused on studies of water movement in natural systems (mainly oceans and groundwater), using natural and anthropogenic trace substances such as radiocarbon, oxygen-18, radioactive hydrogen and its decay product helium-3. We also use measurements of noble gases in groundwater to reconstruct continental paleotemperature records.

In the ocean, we use these substances either as regional or global "dyes" to investigate the movement of water from the ocean surface into the deep basins and to study circulation patterns in the deep ocean. We also apply radioactive isotopes to determine the age of specific water masses. Our studies add to basic understanding of ocean circulation and further our knowledge of the oceans role in climate variability. Our field work is currently concentrated in polar oceans.

The same principles are used to investigate groundwater flow in shallow and deep aquifers, providing results that are relevant for environmental risk and impact studies. Groundwater ages also provide a chronology for paleoclimate records reconstructed from groundwater flow systems. A new line of research is the release of SF₆ and ³He into rivers and estuaries to study mixing and gas exchange.

Selected Publications

Schlosser, P., G. Boenisch, M. Rhein and R. Bayer. Reduction of deepwater formation in the Greenland Sea during the 1980s: evidence from tracer data, Science, 251, 1054-1056, 1991.

Stute, M., P. Schlosser, J. Clark and W.S. Broecker. Paleotemperatures in the southwestern United States derived from noble gases in ground water, Science, 256, 1000-1003, 1992.

Clark, J. F., P. Schlosser, M. Stute, and H. J. Simpson, SF₆-³He tracer release experiment: a new method of determining longitudinal dispersion coefficients in large rivers, Environment Science and Technology, 30, 1527-1532, 1996.