MRI: Acquisition of a gamma-ray spectrometer for surface-process and ocean research

土壤的维护对维持世界不断增长的人口至关重要。被侵蚀的地表沉积物也可能通过光衰减和重金属污染成为全球水生生态系统退化的主要污染物。这项仪器拨款将通过测量自然产生的放射性同位素吸附在沉积物上的衰变产物来增加沉积物流动性研究。该工具将有助于为以下工作奠定基础：(1)创建新的数据集，(2)加强跨学科合作研究的基础设施，以及(3)通过学生培训培养能够应对社会环境挑战的多样化劳动力。这项拨款的教育影响包括将仪器纳入新的课程和本科生研究项目，通过美国国家科学基金会资助的本科生研究经验项目，加州大学圣地亚哥分校斯克里普斯海洋学研究所。放射性沉降核素的测量提供了一种测量地表过程速率的方法。具体来说，短寿命的铍核素7Be可以用来理解化学上类似的10Be放射性核素，通常用于表面过程研究，但通常只能通过更昂贵的加速器质谱法来测量。堪培拉/Mirion u型低温低温小阳极锗（SAGe）井探测系统对丰富的短寿命铍放射性核素（7Be）的探测，将有助于研究宇宙源10Be的迁移率和9Be的吸附行为，9Be是一种有毒污染物。这台仪器的获得将推动科学研究（其中一些已经得到了nsf的资助）和创新，并培养低温地球化学、海洋地球科学、生态学、考古学和地球表面动力学研究人员之间的跨学科合作。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Maintenance of soil is critically important for sustaining the world's growing population. Eroded surface sediment can also be a major pollutant degrading aquatic ecosystems worldwide through light attenuation and heavy-metal contamination. This instrumentation grant will add to sediment mobility research through the measurement of decay products from naturally produced radioactive isotopes adsorbed to sediment. This instrument will help build a foundation for efforts to (1) create new datasets, (2) enhance infrastructure for interdisciplinary, collaborative research, and (3) train a diverse workforce capable of tackling society's environmental challenges through student training. Education impacts of this grant include the incorporation of the instrument into a new course and undergraduate student research projects through the NSF-funded Research Experience for Undergraduates program at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego. Measurement of fallout radionuclides provide a means to measure rates of surficial processes. Specifically, the short-lived beryllium nuclide 7Be can be used to understand the chemically similar 10Be radionuclide commonly used in surface-process research but typically only measured by more expensive accelerator mass spectrometry. Detection of the abundant short-lived beryllium radionuclide (7Be) via acquisition of a Canberra/Mirion U-Style Cryostat Small Anode Germanium (SAGe) Well Detector System will facilitate research into the mobility of cosmogenic 10Be and the adsorption behavior of 9Be, which is a toxic pollutant. The acquisition of this instrument will drive scientific research (some already NSF-funded) and innovation and cultivate interdisciplinary collaborations among researchers studying low-temperature geochemistry, marine geoscience, ecology, archaeology, and Earth-surface dynamics.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.