Acquisition of Instrumentation for the Institute of Ecosystem Studies' Central Analytical Laboratory

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Abstract0216161Weathers, Kathleen C.A grant has been awarded to Dr. Kathleen C. Weathers of the Institute of Ecosystem Studies (IES) to upgrade IES's central Analytical Laboratory through the replacement of instruments that are both used heavily and outdated. Their manufacturers either have, or will soon cease to provide replacement parts or support for these instruments. The instruments are a carbon-nitrogen-sulfur analyzer, a continuous flow analyzer, and an inductively coupled plasma spectrometer. All of these instruments are critical for generating data for core ecological research programs at IES, and all are used by students. Many individual research projects will be supported through the use of these instruments. For example, the instruments will be used to generate data: 1) on the baseline chemistry for both of IES's Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites (Hubbard Brook and Baltimore), which are components of the NSF's LTER network. The Baltimore Ecosystem Study is one of only two "urban" projects in this network of nearly 25 sites; 2) for the Hudson River research group, who investigate many aspects of the function of the River, including the effect of an invading bivalve, the zebra mussel, on the Hudson ecosystem; 3) for a project testing the global hypothesis that earthworm invasion of north temperate forests will have large consequences for nutrient retention and uptake in these ecosystems; 4) for research on the loss of nitrogen (N) from forest ecosystems after insect defoliation and the role of N availability in controlling that loss; 5) for a project investigating the effect of beech bark disease invasion on the functioning of the Catskill Mountain ecosystem (whose streams are the source of drinking water for New York City); 6) and for the IES Environmental Monitoring Program, which has generated an extremely valuable record of precipitation chemistry, air quality, meteorology, wet and dry deposition, forest growth, forest nutrient cycling, and stream chemistry at a protected 800 ha location in the Hudson Valley.The IES Analytical Laboratory is a shared resource: on average 80% of its scientific staff and a large number of graduate students, postdoctoral associates, REU students, collaborators and visitors use its facilities for analysis of ecological samples, ranging from precipitation and throughfall to soils and saline waters. The IES Analytical Laboratory currently performs between 50,000 and 60,000 analyses a year for major inorganic and organic ions, including sample analysis for many of the 33 (currently funded) National Science Foundation (NSF)-sponsored projects. These projects include PIs from IES, as well as collaborators outside of IES whose affiliations vary widely and include colleagues from countries throughout the world. In addition, the IES Analytical Laboratory serves as the primary analytical facility for projects funded by the National Institutes of Health, the US Department of Agriculture, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, the Hudson River Foundation, and others. Extensive postdoctoral, graduate, undergraduate (through an NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates grant) student research is also done in this laboratory.