MRI: Acquisition of Accelerated Solvent Extractor and Gas Chromatograph for Undergraduate Paleoclimatological Research

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1126395 Cleaveland-PetersonThis Major Research Instrumentation grant supports acquisition of an accelerated solvent extraction system (ASE) and a gas chromatograph with flame ionization detector (GC-FID). The equipment will support PI and undergraduate student research in paleoceanography and paleoclimatology that relies on analysis of lipid biomarkers preserved in marine sediments and terrestrial sequences. In particular the PI seeks to focus on the use of the GC for isolation and analysis of alkenones from complex organic mixtures found in marine sediments and rock outcrops as a proxy for estimating past sea surface temperatures. The technique can offer new information for the study of Cenozoic global climate, its relationship to orbital forcing and the effects of past atmospheric CO2 levels on Earth's climate system and implications for glacial and interglacial transitions. Luther College is an undergraduate liberal arts institution and the PI is a female early career geoscientist (Ph.D. 2009).***