Environmental proxies: from inorganic precipitation to biocrystallization

ESF/EuroCLIMATE-EuroMinScI - ESRF Workshop
"Environmental Proxies: From Inorganic Precipitation to Biocrystallization"

30-31 October 2006, ESRF, Grenoble, France

 List of invited speakers

Four on-going ESF projects are dealing with calcareous crystals, sedimentary or biogenic. Two of them belong to the EuroCLIMATE Program (PaleoSalt and Casiopeia) and two others to the EuroMinScI (BioCalc and Cubcat).

 Either studying natural materials (biogenic or chemically produced) or dealing with crystals resulting from experiments, these projects are sharing a common objective: to improve our understanding of the relationships between the crystal structures, their chemical or isotopic compositions and the properties of their growth environments.

 An additional characteristic of the naturally produced calcareous crystals is the impact of organic components on their nucleation and growth. Such an influence is obvious for biogenic crystals that are always produced under control of specifically secreted macromolecules. However, crystals freely growing in sea water are also submitted to influence of dissolved or particulate organic compounds that interact with mineral surfaces and may modify the structural and chemical properties. In both cases, consequences of this organo-mineral interplay must be established and interpreted.

 This 2-day workshop gathers members of these four projects and some leading scientists in the domain. It provides opportunities for an intensive exchange of information between investigators facing questions that require accurate knowledge of the methods that allow the fine-scale patterns of these organo-mineral composites to be characterized. Owing to the increasing role of synchrotron radiation based methods, ESRF is the relevant site for such a meeting.