MRI: Acquisition of a Laser Ablation High Resolution Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer for Investigations of Ocean and Climate

需要对海洋的地球化学有基本的了解，才能增进对我们生活的世界的基本知识，并根据海洋沉积物和化石的组成重建我们过去气候的各个方面。这项工作需要现代化实验室中的精密仪器。该奖项为罗格斯大学的一组研究人员提供资金，用于购买新的质谱仪(ICPMS)和相关的激光消融(LA)样品引入系统，以便他们能够继续对海水和海洋沉积物中的微量元素进行正在进行的研究，并在新的研究方向上扩大他们的测量范围。我们的社会迫切关注海洋在控制地球气候方面的作用；对这一原理的研究将有助于从根本上理解海洋中推动二氧化碳与大气交换的物理、化学和生物过程。这些新仪器还将完全融入本科生和研究生的教学和研究：(1)将开设名为“地球科学的无机质谱学”的本科生/研究生联合课程，重点讲授电感耦合等离子体质谱仪的理论和实践；(2)新设施将为罗格斯大学的Aresty、Rise和NSF研究经验暑期项目支持的本科生研究提供具有挑战性的机会。此外，研究人员将与美国国家科学基金会资助的新中心推进研究对社会的影响(ARIS)合作，开发强调参与科学的学习机会。该项目将以美国国家科学基金会资助的罗格斯大学极地-跨学科协调教育(ICE)计划为蓝本，该计划已在全国21个教室成功实施。目前正在试行一门新的教育者课程，并将向对在教学中使用科学数据感兴趣的新一批教育工作者提供这一课程。原则调查人员在扩展这类仪器能力的研究方面享有盛誉，并培训了许多学生，包括许多女性和代表性不足的少数族裔，他们使用这些技能在离开罗格斯大学后成功地获得了学术职位。该奖项将用于购买一台高分辨率电感耦合等离子体质谱仪，带有激光烧蚀样品引入装置和标准自动取样器和引入系统。这一仪器对罗格斯-新不伦瑞克大学海洋和海岸科学系、地球和行星科学系和环境科学系成员以及罗格斯-纽瓦克和其他地方相关部门的用户的研究至关重要。新的电感耦合等离子体质谱将允许分析样品中微量微量元素的浓度，如海水、海洋颗粒、海洋生物的微小贝壳和冰川冰。LA将为实验室增加新的能力，并将允许通过蒸发固体并将产生的冷凝气体直接注入MS来分析微小区域的固体样本，例如深海珊瑚骨骼，而不需要将样本溶解在酸性溶液中。首席调查员目前的项目包括：与大型野外项目GEOTRACES和帕尔默长期生态研究项目有关的北极和南极极地海洋微量金属动力学调查；根据深海珊瑚化石和称为有孔虫的化石微生物贝壳中的微量元素浓度恢复过去海洋化学的地球化学方法的开发；以及通过国际海洋发现计划重建古海洋学。二十多年来，研究人员一直处于这些领域的前沿，这一奖项允许他们在这些研究领域继续创新。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Fundamental understanding of the geochemistry of the ocean is required to advance basic knowledge of the world we live in, and to reconstruct aspects of our past climate from the composition of ocean sediments and fossils. This work requires sophisticated instrumentation in a modern laboratory. This award provides the funding for a group of researchers at Rutgers University to purchase a new mass spectrometer (ICP-MS) and an associated laser ablation (LA) sample introduction system, so that they can continue their ongoing research into trace elements in seawater and ocean sediments, and to expand their measurements in new research directions. Our society is urgently interested in the role of the ocean in governing earth's climate; the research of the Principle Investigators will contribute to the fundamental understanding of physical, chemical and biological processes in the ocean that drive the exchange of carbon dioxide with the atmosphere. The new instruments will also be integrated fully into undergraduate and graduate teaching and research: (1) A combined undergraduate/graduate class entitled "Inorganic Mass Spectrometry for Earth Sciences" will be taught focusing on ICP-MS theory and practice; (2) The new facility will offer challenging opportunities for undergraduate research supported by Rutgers' Aresty, RISE, and the NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates summer programs. In addition, the researchers will work with the new NSF-funded center Advancing the Impact of Research on Society (ARIS) to develop learning opportunities emphasizing participation in science. This project will be modeled on the NSF-funded Rutgers Polar-Interdisciplinary Coordinated Education (ICE) program, that has been successfully implemented in twenty-one classrooms across the country. A new educator course is currently being piloted and will be expanded and offered to a new cohort of educators interested in using scientific data in their teaching. The Principle Investigators have an established reputation for research that expands the capabilities of this type of instrumentation, and have trained many students, including many women and under-represented minorities, who have used these skills to qualify successfully for academic positions once they leave Rutgers.This award will be used to purchase a high-resolution inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer with a Laser Ablation sample introduction unit and standard autosampler and introduction systems. This instrumentation is crucial to the research of members of the Departments of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Earth and Planetary Sciences and Environmental Sciences at Rutgers-New Brunswick, as well as users from associated departments at Rutgers-Newark and elsewhere. The new ICP-MS will allow analysis of minute concentrations of trace elements in samples such as seawater, ocean particles, the tiny shells of marine organisms, and glacial ice. The LA will add new capability to the laboratory, and will allow tiny regions of solid samples, such as deep-sea coral skeletons, to be analyzed by vaporizing the solid and injecting the resulting condensed gasses directly into the MS, without the need to dissolve the sample in an acid solution. The current projects of the Principle Investigators include investigation of trace metal dynamics in the Arctic and Antarctic polar oceans, associated with the large field programs GEOTRACES and the Palmer Long Term Ecological Research, the development of geochemical methods to reconstruct past ocean chemistry from trace element concentrations in fossil deep-sea corals and the shells of fossil micro-organisms called foraminifera, and paleoceanographic reconstructions through the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP). The researchers have been at the forefront of these fields for more than twenty years, and this award allows them to continue to innovate in these research areas.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.