Acquisition of an Isotope-Ratio Mass Spectrometer and Moving-Wire Interface for Hydrogen- and Carbon-Isotopic biogeochemistry

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0321339SessionsThis Major Research Instrumentation award to California Institute of Technology provides funds for acquisition of an isotope-ratio mass spectrometer, a gas chromatograph with pyrolysis interface for deuterium/hydrogen analyses of lipids, and a moving-wire interface for 13C analyses of involatile biopolymers such as RNA. The moving-wire interface, which is not commercially available, will be built at Caltech. The instrumentation will be used to support two areas of research in biogeochemistry. First, the PI and his colleagues plan to address use of rRNA-targeted probes to direct isotopic analyses of organic materials to the level of individual species. An example would use 13C in rRNA to follow the flow of methane-derived carbon through microbial communities that conduct anaerobic methane oxidation. The second research focus will employ compound-specific deuterium/hydrogen isotopic ratios of lipids to study the biogeochemistry of anaerobic sediments. The proposed instrumentation will be used to develop new isotopic methods and combine them with molecular biological tools, creating new analytical techniques to address research topics in the emerging field of 'geobiology,' with related applications to fields from microbiology to organic geochemistry. Caltech is providing cost-share towards the equipment acquisition of 30% of the project cost from non-federal funds. This proposal is supported by the Division of Ocean Sciences at NSF. ***