Uranium-Series Laboratory (LUT)

Head of the LUT.: dr hab. Michał Gąsiorowski
Institute of Geological Sciences PAS
Research Center in Warsaw
Twarda 51/55, 00-818 Warsaw (Poland)
Phone: (48) 22 6978-742 
e-mail: mgasior@twarda.pan.pl

Facebook:  Uranium-Series Laboratory

Research fields:

  1. Paleoenvironmental reconstructions based on speleothem records
  2. Assessment of environmental pollution with radioactive isotopes
  3. Study of transport and deposition of natural and artificial radioactive isotopes in the environment
  4. Dating lake sediments using the 210Pb and 137Cs methods
  5. Study of 3H activity in various components of the natural environment
  6. Using isotopes studies to model geochemical processes
  7. Isolating of collagen from fossil bone samples

Laboratory equipment:

  1. LA-ICP-MS
  2. Alpha Spectrometer
  3. Liquid Scintillation spectrometer
  4. Gamma Spectrometer
  5. Vario MicroCUBE elemental analyzer
  6. Equipment for sampling lake sediments

Team members:

  1. Dr .hab. Michał Gąsiorowski, Professor of the Institute
  2. Dr. Hab. Helena Hercman, Professor of the Institute
  3. Dr. Jacek Pawlak, Adjunct
  4. MSc. Marcin Błaszczyk, Assistant
  5. MSc. Ilona Sekudewicz, Assistant
  6. MSc. Maciej Swęd, Assistant
  7. MSc. Anna Mulczyk, Technician Expert
  8. MSc. Paula Sierpień, Technician
  9. M.Eng. Jacek Stienss, Assistant
  10. M. Eng. Karolina Kaucha, Technician

Current research projects:

2022 - 2025: Projekt NCN Preludium 20 pt. 'Migration of radioactive isotopes in sediments of lakes affected by acid mine drainage - an experimental approach'. Principal investigator: Ilona Sekudewicz

2022 - 2025: Projekt NCN Preludium 20 pt. '(Bio)weathering of waste from zinc and lead mining'. Principal investigator: Maciej Krzysztof Swęd

2019 - 2022: Projektu NCN OPUS 16 pt. 'Stable isotopes in invertebrate chitin as a tool to identify processes affecting mountain lake ecosystems'. Principal investigator: dr hab Michał Gąsiorowski

Selected publications:

  • 2021:

M. Gąsiorowski, J. Stienss, E. Sienkiewicz, and I. Sekudewicz, “Geochemical Variability of Surface Sediment in Post-Mining Lakes Located in the Muskau Arch (Poland) and Its Relation to Water Chemistry,” Water. Air. Soil Pollut., vol. 232, no. 3, pp. 1–12, Mar. 2021.

I. Sekudewicz, A. M. Dąbrowska, and M. D. Syczewski, “Microplastic pollution in surface water and sediments in the urban section of the Vistula River (Poland),” Sci. Total Environ., vol. 762, p. 143111, Mar. 2021.

N. Zupan Hajna et al., “Pliocene to Holocene chronostratigraphy and palaeoenvironmental records from cave sediments: Račiška pečina section (SW Slovenia),” Quat. Int., vol. 605–606, pp. 5–24, Dec. 2021.

J. Pawlak, M. Błaszczyk, H. Hercman, and Š. Matoušková, “Palaeoenvironmental conditions during MIS 6/MIS 5 transition recorded in speleothems from the Tatra Mountains,” Boreas, vol. 50, no. 1, pp. 224–241, Jan. 2021.

A. R. Paine et al., “The trace-element composition of a Polish stalagmite: Implications for the use of speleothems as a record of explosive volcanism,” Chem. Geol., vol. 570, p. 120157, Jun. 2021.

M. Błaszczyk, H. Hercman, J. Pawlak, and J. Szczygieł, “Paleoclimatic reconstruction in the Tatra Mountains of the western Carpathians during MIS 9–7 inferred from a multiproxy speleothem record,” Quat. Res., vol. 99, pp. 290–304, Jan. 2021.

M. Gąsiorowski, E. Sienkiewicz, U. Ciołko, K. Kaucha, M. Kupryjanowicz, and M. Szal, “Cultural eutrophication of a Central European lowland lake from the Bronze Age to the present recorded in diatom and Cladocera remains,” CATENA, vol. 204, p. 105404, Sep. 2021.

  • 2020:

H. Hercman, M. Gąsiorowski, J. Pawlak, M. Gradziński, Š. Matoušková,  P. Zawidzki, P. Bella. Atmospheric circulation and the differentiation of precipitation sources during the Holocene inferred from five stalagmite records from Demänová Cave System (Central Europe), The Holocene, 30, pp. 834-846, 2020.

J. Szczygieł, H. Hercman, G. Hoke, M. Gąsiorowski, M. Błaszczyk, A. Sobczyk. No valley deepening of the Tatra Mountains (Western Carpathians) during the past 300 ka. Geology, 48, pp. 1006–1011, 2020.

J. Pawlak, H. Hercman, P. Sierpień, P. Pruner, M. Gąsiorowski, A. Mihevc, N. Zupan Hajna, P. Bosák, M. Błaszczyk, B. Wach. Estimation of the durations of breaks in deposition – Speleothem case study, Geochronometria, 47, pp. 154–170, 2020.