MRI: Acquisition of an Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometer for Tracing Human-Environment Interactions

美国犹他大学获得一项奖励，购买一台同位素比质谱仪，以支持人类与环境相互作用的研究。新仪器将安装在环境研究稳定同位素比率（SIRFER）设施内，并通过该设施进行管理，该设施是与大学相关的校园核心设施。全球变化与可持续发展中心。来自整个校园的教师分支机构将使用新仪器对各种环境化合物中氢、碳、氮和氧的稳定同位素的分布进行新的测量。这些数据将使研究人员能够通过对沉积档案和树木年轮的研究来重建人类与环境相互作用的历史，了解和量化人类主导景观中碳、水和氮的循环，并确定人类活动对非高密度人类居住地区的气候、水文、生态和生物地球化学的间接影响。美国西部的城市化、生态规划、水和营养问题将是这项工作的主要焦点，这将利用大学正在进行的合作研究项目和基础设施发展努力。作为SIRFER设施的一部分，新仪器将成为该设施的基石，该设施将引领传统的质谱方法与下一代基于激光的技术相结合，用于同位素比率测量，并将为项目团队用于监测环境同位素比率的大量高频激光系统提供校准和验证支持。新的质谱仪将用于犹他大学的本科和研究生课程，并为这些课程的学生提供探索新的环境系统和测量技术的机会。它将支持与大陆尺度生态学校际培训计划（ITCE）相关的广泛的研究生和博士后培训工作，该计划每年夏天协调两个研究生水平的夏季短期课程，并支持博士后培训和研究，以支持大规模生态学和地球科学。这项工作支持的研究涉及与社会科学家、工程师和规划人员的广泛合作，这些合作将有助于利用研究成果改善人-环境耦合系统的规划和管理。

An award is made to the University of Utah to purchase an isotope ratio mass spectrometer in support of research on human-environment interactions. The new instrument will be installed in and managed through the Stable Isotope Ratios for Environmental Research (SIRFER) facility, a campus core facility associated with the University?s Global Change and Sustainability Center. Faculty affiliates from across campus will use the new instrument to make novel measurements of the distribution of stable isotopes of hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen in a wide range of environmental compounds. These data will allow the researchers to reconstruct the history of human interactions with the environment through the study of sedimentary archives and tree rings, understand and quantify the cycling of carbon, water, and nitrogen within human-dominated landscapes, and identify the indirect effects of human activity on the climate, hydrology, ecology, and biogeochemistry of areas not subject to high-density human habitation. Urbanization, ecological planning, and water and nutrient issues in the western USA will be dominant foci for this work, which will leverage ongoing collaborative research projects and infrastructure development efforts at the University. As a part of the SIRFER facility, the new instrument will be a cornerstone of a facility that is leading the integration of traditional mass spectrometric methods for isotope ratio measurement with next-generation laser-based techniques, and will provide calibration and validation support for a large number of high-frequency laser systems used by the project team for monitoring of environmental isotope ratios.The new mass spectrometer will be used in undergraduate and graduate courses at the University of Utah and provide opportunities for students in these courses to explore new environmental systems and measurement techniques. It will support broad-reaching graduate student and postdoctoral training efforts associated with the Interuniversity Training in Continental-scale Ecology (ITCE) program, which coordinates two graduate-level summer short courses each summer and supports postdoctoral training and research in support of large-scale ecology and Earth science. Research supported by this work involves extensive collaboration with social scientists, engineers and planners, and these collaborations will help leverage research results to improve the planning and management of the coupled human-environment system.