Acquisition of a Continuous Flow Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometer System

在Paul A. Steudler的指导下，海洋生物实验室（MBL）获得了一笔拨款，用于部分支持获得连续流同位素比质谱仪（CF-IRMS）系统，该系统将支持MBL扩大研究以及将稳定同位素技术应用于陆地和水生生态研究的本科和研究生教育计划。新仪器的扩展能力将集中于四项研究活动；(1)测定水生系统代谢；(2)测定微生物系统的组成和营养来源；(3)测定大气中碳循环和温室气体产生的来源和过程；(4)测定流域水氮的来源和流动路径。新的CF-IRMS系统将有利于实验室的研究项目，包括位于梅岛和哈佛森林的三个NSF长期生态研究站点，马萨诸塞州和阿拉斯加的图里克湖，两个NASA和一个NSF支持的巴西项目，以及其他17个联邦资助的项目。这笔资金将用于MBL的几个教育和培训项目：一个是环境科学学期（SES）项目；二是NSF本科生科研经历项目；第三，通过我们与美国和外国大学的PI的联合项目，培养研究生的住宿和访问MBL。新的教育活动包括2004年秋季开始的布朗- mbl生物和环境科学研究生课程。我们将开设三个关于稳定同位素使用和新型CF-IRMS仪器功能的新讲习班：一个是为SES学生举办的为期两天的讲习班；第二个是一月为布朗-MBL大学本科生和研究生举办的为期10天的研讨会，第三个是MBL暑期微生物多样性课程的周末研讨会，主题是新系统在阐明微生物群落多样性和功能方面的能力。新的CF-IRMS系统将对研究、培训和教学活动产生重大影响。这一系统将使我们能够在生态系统生产力、区域和全球水平衡以及全球气候变化问题等重要问题上取得进展。新系统将使我们能够从烧瓶水平的实验转向对生产力的区域估计，了解控制物质（如营养物质）从陆地向水的转移的过程，并获得土壤和水生微生物在碳和氮温室气体演变中的作用的信息。关于微生物在这些系统中参与各种碳和氮转化的确切知识显然与我们用于研究这些系统的方法和仪器的发展有关。新的CF-IRMS系统将大大提高我们对生物地球化学过程与微生物物种组成和功能之间联系的认识。

A grant has been awarded to the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) under the direction of Paul A. Steudler for partial support to acquire a continuous flow isotope ratio mass spectrometer (CF-IRMS) system that will support the MBL's expanding research and undergraduate and graduate education program in the application of stable isotopic techniques to terrestrial and aquatic ecological research. The expanded capabilities of the new instrumentation will be focused on four research activities; (1) Determination of aquatic system metabolism, (2) Measurement of the composition and sources of nutrition of microbial systems, (3) Determination of the sources and processes regulating carbon cycling and production of atmospheric greenhouse gases and (4) Resolving the sources and flow paths of water and nitrogen in watersheds. The new CF-IRMS system will benefit the Laboratory's research program, including three NSF Long Term Ecological Research sites at Plum Island and Harvard Forest, MA and at Toolik Lake, Alaska, two NASA and one NSF supported program in Brazil and as well as 17 other federally funded projects. The grant will benefit several MBL educational and training programs: one is the Semester in Environmental Sciences (SES) program; second is the NSF program on Research Experience for Undergraduates; third is training of graduate students in residence and visiting the MBL through our joint projects with PI's at US and foreign universities. New educational activities include the Brown-MBL graduate program in Biological and Environmental Sciences that begins in the fall of 2004. We will teach three new workshops in the use of stable isotopes and the capabilities of the new CF-IRMS instrumentation: one is a two-day workshop to SES students; second is a 10 day workshop in January to Brown-MBL advanced undergraduate and graduate students and the third is a weekend workshop for the MBL summer Microbial Diversity course on the capabilities of the new system in elucidating the diversity and function of microbial communities. The new CF-IRMS system will have significant impacts on research, training and teaching activities. This system will allow us to make progress on important questions in ecosystem productivity, regional and global water balance and global climate change issues. The new system will allow us to move from flask-level experiments to regional estimates of productivity, to understand the processes that control the transfer of materials such as nutrients from land to water, and to gain information on the role of soil and aquatic microbes on the evolution of carbon and nitrogen greenhouse gases. Knowledge on exactly what microbes are involved in various C and N transformations in these systems is clearly tied to developments in the methods and instrumentation that we use to study these systems. Our understanding of the links between biogeochemical processes and microbial species composition and function will be greatly improved by the new CF-IRMS system.