Early Career: Acquisition of an Isotopic Liquid-Water Analyzer for Hydrology and Earth Science Research and Education at Syracuse University

建议摘要：液态水同位素分析仪是一种便携式、用户友好的仪器，它依靠近红外吸收光谱来测定水样的同位素组成。这项技术已经商业化，最近的进步使该仪器成为传统稳定同位素比质谱仪的替代品。该仪器只需要很小的样品体积，样品前处理有限，可以进行高精度的快速分析，从而为需要水同位素分析的各种研究项目打开了大门。这笔赠款支持三名早期职业科学家，他们专门从事水文学、构造地貌学和水化学领域的研究。该仪器将支持的研究包括：表征水的同位素，以调查降雨和土壤水的来源；表征水在穿过水圈并最终被纳入岩石记录时的同位素组成如何演变；分析海洋沉积物中的孔隙水，以追踪南极洲峡湾的冰川融化事件；以及利用伊卡伊石矿物中的水，重建千年间隔的海水的组成。水(H2O)可以通过分析氢和氧的同位素来表征。这两种元素的同位素组成包含了关于水的来源和影响水的气候过程的性质的大量信息。例如，氧和氢同位素被用来确定有多少雨水来自海洋蒸发，以及水从海洋流向地面并注入溪流或地下水的距离。通过这笔赠款资助的仪器将使职业生涯早期的研究人员能够快速、准确和经济地分析从溪流、地下水和海洋收集的样本的水同位素组成。获得该仪器将有助于开展的研究项目包括：确定地下水、土壤水和溪水的来源；了解水的同位素组成如何保存在岩石记录中；确定冰川融化对南极海洋的水贡献的特征；以及通过分析矿物中的水来确定古代海水的组成。这些应用对地球的水循环、地球地形的演变以及气候变化对海水组成的影响都有意义。

Proposal Abstract:Liquid water isotope analyzers are portable user-friendly instruments that rely on near-infrared adsorption spectroscopy to determine the isotopic composition of water samples. This technology is commercially available and recent advances have made the instruments an alternative to traditional stable isotope ratio mass spectrometers. The instrument requires only a small sample volume, limited sample pre-processing, and allows for rapid analyses with high precision, therefore opening the door for a variety of research projects that require water isotope analyses. This grant supports three early career scientists that specialize in the fields of hydrology, tectonic geomorphology and aqueous geochemisty. The research that will be supported by this instrument includes characterization of water isotopes to investigate the sources of rainfall and soil water; the characterization of how water's isotopic composition evolves as it moves through the hydrosphere and is eventually incorporated into the rock record; the analyses of pore water in marine sediments to track glacial melting events in Antarctica fjords; and the use of water in ikaite minerals to reconstruct the composition of seawater on thousand-year time intervals. Water (H2O) can be characterized by analyzing the isotopes of both H and O. The isotopic composition of these two elements contains vast information on the sources of the water and the nature of the climatic processes that have affected the water. For instance, oxygen and hydrogen isotopes are used to determine how much rainwater originated from ocean evaporation and how far the water has traveled from the ocean to where it fell on the ground and feeds streams or groundwaters. The instrument funded though this grant will allow early career researchers to rapidly, precisely and economically analyze the water isotope composition of samples collected from streams, groundwaters, and the ocean. Research projects that will be facilitated by acquisition of this instrument include determining the sources of ground waters, soil water and stream water, learning how the isotopic composition of water is preserved in the rock record, characterizing the water contribution to the Antarctic ocean from melting of glaciers, and determining the composition of ancient sea water through analyses of water trapped in minerals. These applications have implications for the Earth?s water cycle, evolution of the Earth's topography, as well as the effects of climatic change on the ocean water composition.