Provision of a Research Microscope and a Gas Chromatography System in Support of Research at the Shannon Point Marine Center

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Western Washington University (WWU) has established the Shannon Point Marine Center (SPMC) as the focal point for new initiatives in research and education in marine science. SPMC is strategically located, providing direct access to a wide a variety of marine and estuarine habitats, including extensive protected wetlands, macrophytes, estuarine marshes, and rocky intertidal zones. The facilities of SPMC provide unique opportunties for research on local estuarine processes, such as productivity of local watersheds, nutrient cycling and regeneration, microbial ecology, and benthic metabolism; on environmental impacts of petroleum refining; and on fish and invertebrate life histories. This project will expand the opportunities for research in these areas by acquisition of a light microscopy system, with dark field, phase contrast, differential interference contrast, epifluorescence, and photomicrography. This will permit the resolution and episluorescence technology critical to algal, protistan, microbial, and embryological research, and will expand the capabilities of our newly-acquired image analysis system. The project will also provide support for a gas chromatography system that will permit analysis of hydrocarbon contamination in sediments and tissues following analytical procedures specified in the Puget Sound Protocols. These new facilities will be used primarily to support research by WWU faculty and visiting investigators and also will be employed in academic programs that incorporate research into the curriculum. ** *