Upgrade of a Stable Isotope Mass Spectrometer by the Addition of an Automated Carbonate Preparation Device

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9905887DettmanThis grant provides partials support for the acquistion of an automated carbonate preparation unit to be attached to a gas ratio mass spectrometer at the University of Arizona. This instrument will automate the stable isotope analysis of small carbonate samples for a large group of researchers at the University of Arizona. The primary users of this instrument within the Geosciences Department will be David Dettman, Andrew Cohen, Jay Quade and Karl Flessa. It is expected that researchers from the Tree Ring Laboratory, the Renewable Natural Resources Department, and the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department will make use of this facility. It will also be made available to faculty at other institutions; planned cooperative work includes researchers from Arizona State University, the California Academy of Sciences, and Virginia Tech.Paleoclimate studies and paleo-ecology are the primary focus of the work to which this instrument will be applied. The automated carbonate preparation unit is optimized for the processing of large numbers of very small samples (on the order of 10 micrograms of CaCO3). These capabilities are needed for a number of lines of research currently underway in this department. An example is the use of seasonal changes in the isotopic composition of micro-sampled growth bands in shells to infer changes in hydrology and climate. Similar studies are underway utilizing whole shells of ostracodes, a micro-crustacean. In addition to paleoclimate studies using these methods, current research in soil geochemistry, paleolimnology, uplift histories of the Rockies and the Himalaya, glaciology, and economic geology will make use of this instrument. It will greatly improve the output and efficiency of all researchers making use of carbonate isotope geochemistry by eliminating the labor involved in manually preparing carbonate samples or by eliminating long turn-around times when samples are sent to other labs for processing. The carbonate unit will be attached to a currently underutilized mass spectrometer, greatly increasing the productivity of this valuable analytical instrument. ***