Early Career: Acquisition of a gas source mass spectrometer, technical support, and outreach for research in paleoclimate

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0949191TripatiThis award provides funding to acquire a gas-source, isotope-ratio mass spectrometer for the analysis of multiply substituted carbon dioxide isotopologues, which form the basis of the new carbonate ?clumped isotope? thermometer. Studies by the early career PI and collaborators during her postdoctoral research demonstrated that the instrumentation awarded here offers unparalleled opportunities for addressing a range of questions in paleoclimatology. For example, accurate constraints on past temperature are critical for documenting climate change and resolving its causes. Paleoclimate records also have the potential to inform us about the amplitude and regional pattern of climate change and about the processes responsible for such change. In addition to being essential to understanding the climate evolution of the Earth over a range of timescales, accurate records of temperature are relevant to outstanding questions in paleoceanography (constraining the density structure of the ocean in the past), biogeochemistry (the nature silicate weathering feedbacks), carbonate sedimentology (the burial and cementation history of reef carbonates), geobiology (the role of climate change in driving major speciation and extinction events in the Paleozoic), and tectonics (the elevation history of the Tibetan Plateau). The instrumentation will support the development of a state-of-the art lab at UCLA encouraging collaborative research projects with outside scientists, including state universities and non-Ph.D. granting institutions. The instrument will be integrated into research activities in the classroom, and utilized intensively by students in thesis research. ***