MRI Acquisition Proposal: Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometer

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This award provides funds for acquisition of two mass spectrometers to be used to measure isotopic composition of samples containing carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, and sulfur. The instruments will satisfy needs of diverse research and educational programs at the University of New Hampshire (UNH). Funding for several automated peripheral devices will permit extension of the instruments' capabilities to include sample types such as water, carbonates, trace gases, and volatile organic compounds. The systems will be placed in a new facility at the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space (EOS). A dedicated will be hired to ensure the smooth operation of the facility. Operation and maintenance of the instrumentation will be overseen by a lab manager who will also be responsible for training of new users. The users will include researchers in microbial ecology, forest ecology, marine ecology, ecosystems science, hydrology, biogeochemistry, atmospheric science, and paleoclimatology. Such research benefits from the ability to track chemical elements through complex biogeochemical processes by using variations in isotopic ratios to monitor specific, isotopically fractionating processes in the environment. The new instrumentation will allow faculty and students to benefit from recent technological advances in mass spectrometry and sample preparation that have increased the speed, accuracy, and resolution of determination of stable isotope ratios. Such advances now allow scientists to explore the Earth system in increasing detail, leading to new insights into the mechanisms by which ecosystems are influenced by the climate, and by each other. The new facility will enhance the infrastructure for research and teaching by permitting, for example, incorporation of new modules in several existing courses, and development of a new course on applications of isotopic measurements in ecology, biogeochemistry, and global environmental change. This new course will complement an existing course in isotope geochemistry. A planned web site will be used to publicize the facility to potential users and to provide information about the potential to use isotopic data in modeling of ecosystems at scales from that of the molecule to that of the ecosystem.