Acquisition of an Ion Chromatograph for Hydrological, Geochemical and Biogeochemical Research

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All living things depend upon the availability of clean water. This award funds the purchase of new instrumentation which will serve as an important aspect of the teaching and research mission of the researchers by enhancing their ability to quantify the chemical constituents in water, and help determine what ?clean? water is. Ion chromatography, a technique used for the measurement of major dissolved ions in water, has been used by the researchers? investigations of such topics as the impacts of agricultural practices on fate and transport of dissolved constituents; chemical weathering of rocks and soils and the fate of carbon in small watersheds; human perturbation of natural waters in urban watersheds; the impact of low temperature geochemical reactions in acidic environments; carbon dioxide interactions between fluids and rocks; the use of major chemical constituents as tracers of glaciological, hydrological, and biogeochemical processes, and impacts of climate change on water supplies. The new instrumentation funded by this award will expand the researchers? analytical capabilities in these areas and provide more sensitive detection limits of chemical constituents in waters. This new instrumental acquisition will support not only the funded research by the five researchers and their students, but also the unfunded research conducted by the many undergraduate students mentored and advised by the researchers. The new instrumentation will also support teaching goals introductory geochemistry courses.A multi-disciplinary group of Earth scientists will acquire a new ion chromatograph to support their research in hydrology, hydrogeology, glaciology, experimental aqueous geochemistry, biogeochemistry, climate change dynamics, and environmental geochemistry. Their collective research projects demand high-quality analyses of major ions from natural surface and ground waters, glacial meltwaters, subsurface brines, soil extracts, and experimental solutions. The new state-of-the-art instrument will bring expanded analytical capabilities, more sensitive detection limits, and greater variety of possible analytes than the 12+ year old instrument that has served these researchers well, but is now obsolete.