Lamont Center for Biogeochemistry: Renovation of the Biology and Paleo Environment Laboratories

该奖项是根据2009年《美国复苏和再投资法案》(公法111-5)提供资金的。该项目涉及拉蒙特·多尔蒂地球天文台“新核心实验室”二楼的翻新，以创建拉蒙特生物地球化学中心。这将使该机构能够在一个日益跨学科的领域支持合作活动，并使研究人员更容易共享高端分析设施。它将允许使用在现有设施中难以使用的现代生物地球化学研究技术。工作计划包括室内翻新、管道、暖通空调、电气、建筑控制、消防、个案工作和其他较小的项目。该项目将取代服务于二楼的机械和电气基础设施。这将包括所有新的配电和管道。为实验室服务的管道系统也将被更换，但绝大多数工作将在供暖、通风和冷却方面进行。翻修后的设施将有助于满足跨越生物、大气、地质、海洋和水文科学的跨学科研究的需要，并增加我们对生物系统与土壤、沉积物、空气或水的物理和化学特征之间的双向耦合的理解。将在翻新后的设施中进行的研究类型的例子包括：使用没有年轮的树木的氧同位素测量重建过去的水文气候条件，并使用树木年轮宽度、密度和同位素指数研究过去千年的亚洲季风；使用铀系列地球化学重建深海粒子通量以及南极上升流和生产力过去的变化；估计上一次冰川周期期间深海碳酸盐化学的变化；利用深海沉积物中有孔虫壳的地球化学分析重建海洋环流、海面温度梯度和陆地气候的过去变化；冰盖不稳定事件的时间和突发性；这些活动包括：利用浮游有孔虫和珊瑚中的硼同位素恢复海洋酸度以及大气二氧化碳水平的过去变化；浮游生态系统对全球气候变化造成的物理强迫的反应；深海沉积物中的微生物组合；哈德逊河河口活跃微生物和致病微生物的模式；以及与土壤固碳有关的微生物。拟议中的翻修还将提供设施，用于为本科生和高中生提供研究体验。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). This project involves the renovation of the second floor of the "New Core Lab" at the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory in order to create the Lamont Center for Biogeochemistry. This will enable the institution to support collaborative activities in an increasingly inter-disciplinary field and to make it easier for researchers to share high-end analytical facilities. It will allow the use of modern biogeochemical research techniques that are difficult to use in the current facilities.The program of work includes interior renovation, plumbing, HVAC, electrical, building controls, fire protection, casework and other smaller items. The project will replace the mechanical and electrical infrastructure that serves the second floor. This will include all new electrical distribution and piping. The plumbing systems serving the laboratories will also be replaced, but the vast majority of the work will be on the heating, ventilating and cooling side. The renovated facility will help to satisfy the need for interdisciplinary research that bridges across the biological, atmospheric, geological, oceanographic, and hydrological sciences and that increases our understanding of the two-way coupling between biological systems and the physical and chemical characteristics of soils, sediments, air, or water. Examples of the type of research that will be done in the renovated facility includes: the reconstruction of past hydroclimate conditions using oxygen isotope measurements from trees without annual rings and the study of the Asian monsoon for the past millennium using tree-ring widths, density, and isotopic indices; the use of uranium series geochemistry to reconstruct deep-sea particle fluxes and past changes in Antarctic upwelling and productivity; estimating changes in deep-ocean carbonate chemistry during the last glacial cycle; the reconstruction of past variations in ocean circulation, sea-surface temperature gradients, and terrestrial climate using geochemical analyses of foraminifer shells in deep-sea sediments; the timing and abruptness of ice sheet instability events; the reconstruction of past changes in ocean acidity and hence atmospheric carbon dioxide levels using boron isotopes in planktonic foraminifera and coral; the response of planktonic ecosystems to physical forcing resulting from global climate change; the microbial assemblage in deep-sea sediments, the pattern of active and pathogenic microbes in the Hudson River estuary, and the microbes associated with soil carbon sequestration. The proposed renovations will also provide facilities that will be used to provide research experiences for undergraduates and high-school students.