Creation of a Trace Gas Laboratory at the University of Colorado Mountain Research Station

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The University of Colorado's Mountain Research Station (M RS) has a unique research mission. The station sponsors the sole alpine Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site in the national network and maintains the longest, continual record of temperate alpine climate and atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations in North America. Recent analysis of long- term climatic trends at this site demonstrates a cooler, wetter pattern in temperate alpine. These findings, in conjunction with the addition of new research personnel associated with the alpine long-term research program, have stimulated substantial interest in short-term (trace gas) and long-term (soil carbon) studies in the alpine and subalpine. The project will support the acquisition of field and laboratory equipment sufficient to support an alpine ecosystem trace-gas research program. Two gas chromatographs equipped with appropriate detectors and columns are requested. One will be used for measurement of radiatively active trace gases (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and others) while the other will be used to measure more complex organic gases produced by plants (isoprene and microbes (phospholipid fatty acids). Data loggers and a Time Domain Reflectometery (TDR) system are requested for time-series measurements of soil temperature and soil moisture. * * *