An Isotope-Ratio Mass Spectrometer for Ecology and Environmental Biology at Northern Arizona University

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Abstract DBI-9729600 An isotope-ratio mass spectrometer for research in the fields of Ecology and Environmental Biology at Northern Arizona University will be purchased. This instrument will be used by 15 faculty members in 5 different departments to address questions such as tracing energy flow through food webs, determing the fate of environmental contaminants (e.g., runoff of fertilizer from agriculture into aquatic ecosystems), measuring the efficiency with which plants use water, identifying the sources of water to riparian vegetation, and measuring turnover of nitrogen and carbon in terrestrial ecosystems, particularly changes in these processes in response to environmental perturbation. Use will also include applications in Archaeology, determining, for example, when human societies have relied on certain plant species such as corn, which has a distinctive carbon isotope "signature" that is reflected in the bones of consumers.