Acquisition of a Gas Source Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometer for Stable Isotope Analyses at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez

9871423 Ripperdan这笔赠款由激励竞争研究实验计划(EPSCoR)和重大研究仪器计划(MRI)平均支持，为波多黎各大学马亚圭斯分校地质系购买气源稳定同位素比质谱仪(SIRMS)提供部分资金。在波多黎各建立这一SIRMS设施将使其成为岛上和大加勒比区域内唯一的此类设施。因此，波多黎各大学收购了SIRMS，为英联邦和波多黎各大学提供了基础设施的改善，大大提高了国际联盟和普遍定期审议同事争取联邦和私营部门研究和发展资金的能力。虽然该设施的主要用户相对年轻，但他们已经开始了一些研究项目，这些项目需要在海洋微化石测试、珊瑚骨骼、地下水和生物样品中溶解的有机和无机碳中对碳和氧进行稳定的同位素分析。将利用SIRMS进行的具体研究包括：晚奥陶世海洋生物大灭绝的化学地层学和古生物学研究；珊瑚骨架记录的千年尺度稳定的海表面温度同位素替代研究；天然和人造沸石中吸附水和结构水的同位素研究，以评估其用于环境修复工作的有效性和改进其设计；用于法医毒理学的毛发的同位素研究；热带生态系统中有机物的去向和路径的生态学研究。最后，鉴于目前获得资助的NSF研究人员的数量，他们继续对加勒比海样品进行稳定同位素调查，无论是水、珊瑚、火成岩或其他样品，这一设施无疑将被来自美国大陆机构的大量访问科学家和他们的学生使用。***

9871423 Ripperdan This grant, supported equally by Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) and the Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) Program, provide partial funding for the acquisition of a gas source stable isotope ratio mass spectrometer (SIRMS) for the Geology Department at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez. Establishment of this SIRMS facility at Puerto Rico will make it the only one of its kind both on the island and within the greater Caribbean region. As a result, acquisition of a SIRMS by the University of Puerto Rico provides an infrastructural improvement for the commonwealth and the University that significantly increases the ability of the PI and UPR colleagues to compete for federal and private sector research and development funding. While the main users of this facility are relatively young, they have already begun a number of research projects that require stable isotopic analyses of carbon and oxygen in marine microfossil tests, coralline skeletons, dissolved organic and inorganic carbon in groundwater and biological samples. Specific studies that will make use of the SIRMS include: combined chemostratigraphic and paleontological studies of the late Ordovician marine mass extinction, research on millennial-scale stable isotopic proxies of sea surface temperatures as recorded in coral skeletons, isotopic studies of adsorbed and structural water within natural and artificial zeolites in order to appraise their effectiveness for use in environmental remediation efforts and to improve their design, isotopic studies of hair for use in forensic toxicology, and ecological studies of the fate and pathways of organic matter in tropical ecosystems. Finally, given the number of currently funded NSF researchers that continue to conduct stable isotopic investigation on Caribbean samples, be they aqueous, coralline, igneous or otherwise, this facility will undoubtedly find use by a large number of visiting scientists and their students from U.S. mainland institutions. ***