Collaborative Research: Facility Support: National Lacustrine Core Facility (LacCore)

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1462297 Ito This collaborative grant between the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities and Duluth (EAR-1462347) campuses supports renewed partial funding of operations and laboratory improvements at LacCore, a national multi-user lake sediment core archival and analysis facility. LacCore was previously supported under EAR- 0949962 and EAR- 0949285. The LacCore Facility supports the limnological community for studies that contribute to our understanding of past climates, ecological systems, and biogeochemical dynamics on the continents though detailed sedimentological analysis and archival services for lacustrine cores. LacCore operates open laboratories to allow community access to specialized field and laboratory equipment and staff expertise for Initial Core Description (ICD) methods including: core splitting; non-destructive multi-sensor core logging; XRF core scanning; SEM imaging; palynological preparation; grain size analysis; carbon coulometry; phase identification via x-ray diffraction; biogenic silica analysis; preparation of samples for subsequent stable isotopic analysis; digital core photography, and optical petrography/smear slide analysis. LacCore also provides refrigerated and frozen core storage and archival services and field coring equipment and curatorial materials (D-tubes) support for lake coring expeditions. LacCore staff are responsible for curation of lake core ICD metadata and the routine transmission of all data to NOAA?s National Geophysical Data Center, development of software for core image analysis and correlation, and education and outreach activities including advising Native American tribe resource managers in the state of Minnesota, supporting student travel grants to expose students to standard protocols for core description and analysis, and developing social media and smart phone applications in support of geoscience education and public awareness. With the selection of the University of Minnesota as the new Continental Scientific Drilling Coordination Office (CSDCO; EAR- 1338322), replacing a role that used to be managed by DOSECC, LacCore PIs will now engage in large drilling project planning and execution.The LacCore Facility will continue as a training ground for hundreds of researchers, particularly graduate students, in coring and core analysis techniques. LacCore staff are engaged in education and outreach including an ongoing collaborative project aimed at study of the paleoenvironments of wild rice lakes in northern Minnesota with tribal college students and teachers from the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College. LacCore staff actively engage in outreach activities to support the engagement of underrepresented students in the geosciences. LacCore data are accessible via web-based open data archives and LacCore staff actively maintain and develop software tools that assist in the imaging and interpretation of lake core records.***