Gary Stinchcomb
University of Memphis, TN·Earth & Environmental Science
Plants depend on nutrients such as phosphorus, calcium and potassium. These and other chemical elements move between plants, soil, rock, rivers and groundwater.
- Fields
Earth & Environmental Science
Chemistry
- Topics
micro X-ray fluorescence
µ-XRF
geochemistry
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through May 2027
What they work on
- Map plant-essential nutrients such as phosphorus, calcium and potassium in modern and fossil soils using micro X-ray fluorescence (µ-XRF), a nondestructive X-ray chemical imaging method.
- Use µ-XRF to map chemical changes in minerals from aquifer sediments, flood and lake deposits, and ancient river channels to study weathering, deposition and groundwater processes.
- Apply µ-XRF chemical mapping to prehistoric rock quarries and fossil soils to support geoarchaeology and reconstruction of past climates.
More about the research
That movement happens in Earth's Critical Zone, the thin surface layer where life, soil, water, rock and air meet. Predicting how this zone will respond to environmental and climate change requires knowing where elements sit and how they move. A common obstacle is that the important changes happen at the scale of micrometers, too small for many standard methods to resolve.
Why it matters
Detailed maps of how nutrients and other elements are spread through soils, sediments and aquifers could help scientists predict how soils, rivers and groundwater systems will behave under environmental and climate change. Mapping fossil soils and ancient deposits adds records of past climate. The instrument will also give students in the economically distressed Delta Regional Authority area hands-on training in modern geochemistry.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Bronwen Konecky
Washington University in St Louis, MO·Earth & Environmental Science·Early-career
Reconstruct 10,000 years of Holocene rainfall and vegetation in Central America and northern South America by measuring hydrogen isotopes of leaf waxes in six dated lake cores from Guatemala and Venezuela.
Davin Wallace
University of Southern Mississippi, MS·Earth & Environmental Science
Collect seismic, multibeam and sediment core data from deep coastal depressions across the Philippines, Palau, Guam, Chuuk, Pohnpei and Kosrae to recover millennial records of intense tropical cyclone strikes.
Sharon Billings
University of Kansas, KS·Earth & Environmental Science
Determine when and how strongly bedrock, compared with plant roots, controls water and carbon movement between land and atmosphere, using new field data and existing Critical Zone, NEON and LTER datasets.
The school
University of Memphis: 3 labs on PI Pages, $109M a year on research, 180 research doctorates a year.
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