We present a novel analytical system that simultaneously measures mass loss, heat flow, gas emissions, and oxygen consumption during controlled heating. The method reveals how carbon, oxygen, and sulfur are stored, transformed, and recycled in geological materials. By providing high-resolution insights into thermal reactivity and redox processes, it helps identify hidden environmental changes and offers a powerful new tool for studying biogeochemical cycles and Earth’s environmental evolution.

Seaweeds can store carbon in the ocean, but traditional methods in food chemistry fail to measure alginate—a major organic component derived from brown algae—in seafloor mud. We developed a novel extraction method for alginate in marine sediments. This allows for high recovery rates, and we successfully used this method to quantify alginate in marine sediments from northern Japan. Our work establishes a reliable method to track alginate on the ocean floor.

Adjusting Rock-Eval® cycle is needed to avoid the need for post-hoc corrections to estimate soil organic (SOC) and inorganic (SIC) carbon. PYRO520 is a cycle with a pyrolysis ending at 520°C instead of 650°C to avoid SIC decomposition while preserving the SOC characterization during pyrolysis. This cycle corrects the misallocation of the end-of-pyrolysis signals and thus repeatably and accurately estimates SOC and SIC contents without using corrections, while preserving the SOC characterization.

Arable soils emit or absorb greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane. This study compared two gas analysis techniques for determining greenhouse gas fluxes under field conditions using the closed chamber method. Fluxes were measured simultaneously using the widely applied gas chromatography (GC) and the emerging mid-infrared laser absorption spectroscopy (LAS) technique. Our results showed that LAS is a reliable alternative to GC, particularly for low flux rates.