REMINDER: 
Call-for-papers will close soon: 13. January 2009

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Dear colleagues
A announcement for your information. For the European Geosciences Union
Meeting in Vienna, Austria (19-24 April 2009) we proposed the following
session. The call-for-papers will be open until 13. January 2009. Please
feel free to forward this e-mail to potentially interested colleagues.

http://meetings.copernicus.org/egu2009/
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Analysis and Characterization of Black Carbon in the Environment
(co-listed in AS, HS, OS & SSS)

Conveners: Michael W. I. Schmidt ([log in to unmask]), Orjan Gustafsson
([log in to unmask]), Johannes Lehmann ([log in to unmask])

Session/event description:
Black carbon (BC) has received increasing attention due to its importance in
a wide range of biogeochemical processes. For example, BC storage in ocean
sediments a represents long-term sink in the global carbon cycle, and BC
aerosols in the atmosphere affect Earth's radiative heat balance. BC can be
a useful tracer for Earth's fire history; it is a significant fraction of
the carbon buried in soils and sediments; and it is an important carrier of
organic pollutants. EGU meetings are very cross-disciplinary and thus
attractive for scientists from diverse backgrounds, including those studying
BC. One focus of the BC-meeting is to bring together the broad scientific
community studying black carbon in the environment to discuss the latest
research.

A second focus of the meeting is to discuss methodological aspects.
Variations in BC chemistry, along a combustion continuum, create serious
methodological problems, as every BC measurement method detects a unique
window of the BC spectrum. To address methodological problems a ring trial
was held (2004-6) on 12 BC-containing samples and materials potentially
creating artifacts analyzed by 17 labs worldwide from soil, atmospheric,
marine and water sciences (www.geo.unizh.ch/phys/bc). Implications and
potential spin-off projects stemming from this ring trial will be presented
and discussed during the meeting.




________________________________________________________
  Dr. Michael W.I. Schmidt (Associate Professor)
  University of Zurich, Department of Geography (Y25 K 64)
  Soil Science & Biogeography
  Winterthurerstr. 190 - 8057 Zurich - Switzerland

  [log in to unmask]
  http://www.geo.uzh.ch/en/units/2b/
  +41 44 635 -5140 (tel. direct);
             -5121 (tel. secr. in Y25 K52)