MRI-R2: Acquisition of a GC/MS triple quadrupole for the characterization of terrestrial plant biomarkers in complex environmental media at TAMUG

该合同由2009年《美国复苏和再投资法案》(公法111-5)提供资金，用于购买一台气相色谱三重四极杆质谱仪(CG-TQ-MS/MS)、一个电子倍增器和一个氧化系统。这些仪器将支持以下两个主要专题的研究：1)以溶解和颗粒形式从流域向水生系统转移的陆源有机物(TOM)；2)生物质燃烧对城市和农村环境空气质量的影响。这种传输在很大程度上依赖于分水岭的水文过程，短期洪水事件在大规模脉冲传输中发挥着重要作用。PIS将调查气候变化情景预测的水文变化可能如何影响天然和受干扰(例如城市)流域的天然有机物质的整体运输。北极项目还引入木质素作为北冰洋上层通风过程的另一种示踪剂，以协调最近观察到的其他已建立的海洋示踪剂之间的差异。特别是，TOM示踪器将有助于确定北极淡水循环的不同组成部分。GC/MS还将为TAMUG最近的研究提供分析能力，以确定沉积在城市和农村分水岭上的燃烧衍生颗粒的组成。生物质燃烧是大气颗粒物的主要来源，这些颗粒物在地方到区域范围内影响空气质量，在区域到全球范围内影响气候。气候波动，特别是干旱周期性和强度的变化是野火事件的强大驱动因素，而野火事件本身对大气气溶胶负荷有很大贡献。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).This award will fund the acquisition of a gas chromatography triple quadrupole mass spectrometer (CG-TQ-MS/MS), an electron multiplier, and an oxidation system. These instruments will support research on 2 major topics, 1) the transfer of terrigenous organic matter (TOM) from watersheds to aquatic systems in both dissolved and particulate forms and 2) the impact of biomass combustion on air quality in urban and rural settings. Such transport is strongly dependent on hydrological processes in the watershed with short-lived flood events playing a substantial role in large-scale pulse transfers. The PIs will investigate how hydrological shifts predicted by climate change scenarios may impact the overall transport of natural organic matter in natural and perturbed (e.g. urban) watersheds. The Arctic project is also introducing lignin as an additional tracer for upper Arctic Ocean ventilation processes in order to reconcile recently observed discrepancies among other established oceanographic tracers. In particular, TOM tracers will help to identify the different components of the Arctic freshwater cycle. The GC/MS will also contribute analytical capacity to recent research at TAMUG in characterizing the composition of combustion-derived particles depositing over urban to rural watersheds. Biomass combustion is a major source of atmospheric particles that affect air quality at the local to regional scale and climate at the regional to global scale. Climate fluctuations, and in particular changes in drought cyclicity and intensity are strong drivers of wildfire events which themselves contribute substantially to atmospheric aerosol loads.