Biography
May, 2020: Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge
September, 2015 to April, 2020: Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford
October, 2011 to September, 2015: PhD student, Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London
October, 2007 to August, 2011: MSci degree in geology, Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London
Research
My research seeks to understand the chemical cycles that govern the most important aspects of the surface earth environment, including the long-term climate and the extent and health of ecosystems. I use metal isotope variations to constrain the sources of key elements to the environment and the processes that control their cycling, with a key strand of my research being the development and application of new analytical techniques to make these challenging measurements. The scientific questions I pursue using these techniques can be broadly divided into 2 themes:
1. Understanding how human activities have perturbed the natural cycles of metals in the environment, and the consequences for the health of humans and ecosystems
2. The development of metal isotope systems to reconstruct environmental changes in the geological past
A major ongoing focus of my research is the development of barium isotope variations to constrain how 2 major components of the carbon cycle, chemical weathering of rocks and biological productivity in the ocean, have responded to climate change throughout Earth history.
Publications
L. Bridgestock, J. Nathan, Y-T. Hsieh, P. Holdship, D. Porcelli, P. S. Andersson and G. M. Henderson, 2021, Assessing the utility of barium isotopes to trace Eurasian riverine freshwater inputs to the Arctic Ocean, Marine Chemistry, 236, 104029, doi:10.1016/j.marchem.2021.104029
L. Bridgestock, Nathan, J., Paver, R., Hsieh, Y-T. Porcelli, D., Tanzil, J., Holdship, P., Carrasco, G., Annammala, K. V., Swarzenski,, P. W., and Henderson, G. M., 2021, Estuarine processes modify the isotope composition of dissolved riverine barium fluxes to the ocean, Chemical Geology, 579, doi:10.1016/j.chemgeo.2021.120340
L. Bridgestock,Y-T. Hsieh, D. Porceilli & G. M. Henderson, 2019, Increased export production during recovery from the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum constrained by sedimentary Ba isotopes, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 510, 52-63
L. Bridgestock, M. Rehkämper, T. van de Flierdt, M. Paul, A. Milne, M. Lohan, E. Achterberg, 2018, The distribution of lead concentrations and isotope compositions in the eastern Tropical Atlantic Ocean, Geochimica et Cosmoschimica Acta, 225, 36-51, doi.10.1016/j.gca.2018.01.018
L. Bridgestock, Y-T. Hsieh, D. Porcelli, W. B. Homoky, A. Bryan & G. M. Henderson, 2018,Controls on the barium isotope compositions of marine sediments, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 481, 101-110, doi.10.1016/j.epsl.2017.10.019
L. Bridgestock, M. Rehkämper, T. van de Flierdt, K. Murphy, Khondoker, A. Baker, R. Chance, E. Achterberg, 2017, The Cd isotope composition of atmospheric aerosols, Geophysical Research Letters, 44, doi:10.1002/2017/GL072748
L. Bridgestock, T. van de Flierdt, M. Rehkämper, M. Paul, R. Middag, A. Milne, M. C. Lohan, A. R. Baker, R. Chance, R. Khondoker, S. Strekopytov, E. Humphreys-Williams, E. P. Achterberg, M. J. A. Rijkenberg, L. J. A. Gerringa & H. J. W. de Baar, 2016, Return of naturally sourced Pb to Atlantic surface waters, Nature Communications, doi:10.1038/ncomms12921
L. Bridgestock, H .Williams, M. Rehkämper. F. Larner, M.D. Giscard, S. Hammond, B. Coles, R. Andreasen, B. J. Wood, K. J. Theis, C. L. Smith, G. K. Benedix, M. Schonbachler, 2014, Unlocking the zinc isotope systematics of iron meteorites, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 400, 153-164
Y-T. Hsieh, R. Paver, J. Tanzil, L. Bridgestock, J. N. Lie and G. M. Henderson, 2022, Barium isotope relationship between coral skeletons and in-situ seawater: multi-colony calibrations and implications for paleo proxies, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 580, doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2022.117369
Hsieh Y-T., Bridgestock L., Scheuermann, P. P., Seyfried, W. E. and Henderson, G. M., 2021, Barium isotopes in mid-ocean ridge hydrothermal vent fluids: a source of isotopically heavy Ba to the ocean, Geochimica and Cosmochimica Acta, 292, 348-363, doi:10.1016/j.gca.2020.09.037
Schlitzer et al. (inc. L. Bridgestock), 2018, The GEOTRACES Intermediate Data Product 2017, Chemical Geology, doi.10.1016/j.chemgeo.2018.05.040
F. Hemsing, Y-T., Hsieh, L. Bridgestock, P. T. Spooner, L. Robinson, N. Frank, & G. M. Henderson, 2018, Barium isotopes in cold-water corals, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 491, 183-192, doi.10.1016/j.epsl.2018.03.040
M. Paul, L. Bridgestock, M. Rehkämper, T. van de Flierdt, D. J. Weiss, 2015, High-precision measurements of seawater Pb isotope compositions by double-spike thermal ionization mass spectrometry, Analytica Chimica Acta, 863, 59-69
F. Larner, Y. Dogra, A. Dybowska, J. Fabrega, B. Stolp, L. J. Bridgestock, R. Goodhead, D. J. Weiss, J. Moger, J. R., Lead, E. Valsami-Jones, C. R. Tyler, T. S. Galloway, M. Rehkämper, 2012, Tracing bioavailability of ZnO nanoparticles using stable isotope labeling, Environmental Science & Technology, 42, 12137-12145
