FSML-Enhanced Cooperative Radiochemistry Research and Education at the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences

Bigelow实验室获得拨款，为他们的新放射化学设施配备了1)一个用于低水平计数的液体闪烁计数器(LSC)，2)两个专用的可堆叠的培养箱，用于在不同的温度和光线条件下保持放射化学实验，以及3)两个带有专用水浴的光合管培养箱，用于测量浮游植物的光生物速率随光强的变化。事实上，这种设备对该设施的功能以及实验室的使命至关重要。准确测量放射性示踪剂的能力一直是毕格罗实验室的核心-S的首要目标是“了解驱动世界海洋生态系统的关键过程、它们的演变以及它们与地球上生命的基本关系。”FSML对放射化学设备的申请将使PIs在测量海洋微生物速率方面保持领先地位。毕格罗实验室的资深研究科学家致力于海洋病毒、细菌、浮游植物、浮游动物和低级无脊椎动物的研究。他们不再只研究真光带的过程，还增加了包括大气化学、热液喷口群落和深层地圈微生物在内的主要研究项目。所有这些群体的共同点是需要测量速率：生物速率(吸收、同化、生长、死亡、放牧)和化学速率(氧化、还原、气体交换/平衡)。放射性示踪技术仍然是定量(和直接)测量海洋中这类比率的最佳方法之一。更广泛的影响这一研究设备将参与培训目前和未来的Bigelow博士后研究人员，从事微生物生态学、生理学、分子生物学和生物地球化学之间的工作。毕格罗实验室的使命的一个重要部分是教育，它有一个强大的外展计划。本计划中的合作个人参与了科尔比学期驻校项目和科尔比一月份项目(“1月计划”)的教学。来自LSC的具体细节和科学成果将被纳入我们本科生的课程，以便他们能够学习示踪实验的基础知识和与LSC相关的技术。毕格罗实验室的CaféScience fique系列讲座促进公众参与尖端科学研究，使这种设备成为可能，使更广泛的受众更容易接触到科学。这个项目的所有PI都将参与这个越来越受欢迎的计划。最后，Bigelow实验室在有害藻华、海洋酸化、富营养化、碳循环等领域开展与社会有关的研究的放射性示踪剂研究的能力完全依赖于不再可用的老化的LSC和无法通过电子方式访问的数据。因此，毕格罗放射化学设施的这一新的LSC和相关设备将进一步继续

Bigelow Laboratory is awarded a grant to outfit their new Radiochemistry Facility with 1) a Liquid Scintillation Counter (LSC) for low-level counting, 2) two dedicated, stackable incubators for maintaining radiochemistry experiments at different temperature and light conditions and 3) two photosynthetron incubators with dedicated water baths for measuring photobiological rates of phytoplankton as a function of light intensity. Indeed, this equipment is critical to the functionality of the facility as well as the very mission of the laboratory. The ability to accurately measure radio-tracers has been at the very core of Bigelow Laboratory?s primary goal, "to understand key processes driving the world's ocean ecosystems, their evolution, and their fundamental relationship to life on Earth." This FSML request for radiochemistry equipment will allow the PIs to maintain preeminence in the measurement of microbial rates in the sea. Bigelow Laboratory's senior research scientists work with ocean viruses, bacteria, phytoplankton, zooplankton, and lower invertebrates. They no longer study just the processes of the euphotic zone but have added major research programs including atmospheric chemistry, hydrothermal vent communities, and microbes of the deep geosphere. What unifies all these groups is the need to measure rates: biological rates (uptake, assimilation, growth, mortality, grazing) and chemical rates (oxidation, reduction, gas exchange/ equilibration). Radiotracer technologies still represent one of the best ways to quantitatively (and directly) measure such rates in the sea. Broader ImpactsThis research equipment will be involved in the training of current and future Bigelow postdoctoral researchers, working at the interface between microbial ecology, physiology, molecular biology, and biogeochemistry. A significant part of Bigelow Laboratory's mission is education and it has a strong outreach program. Co-PIs in this proposal are involved in teaching the Colby semester-in-residence program as well as Colby's January Program ("Jan-plan"). Specific details and scientific results from the LSC will be incorporated into the curriculum of our undergraduate students so they can learn the fundamentals of tracer experiments and the technology associated with the LSC. Bigelow Laboratory's Café Scientifique lecture series promotes public engagement with cutting-edge scientific research, of the sort made possible by this equipment, making science more accessible to a broader audience. All PIs on this project will participate in this increasingly popular program. Finally, the ability of Bigelow Laboratory to perform radiotracer research on society-relevant research in fields such as harmful algal blooms, ocean acidification, eutrophication, carbon cycling, etc., has completely relied on an aged LSC that is no longer serviceable and data that cannot be accessed electronically. Thus, this new LSC and associated equipment for the Bigelow Radiochemistry Facility will further the continuation