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

对海洋地球化学的基本了解是推进我们生活的世界的基本知识，并从海洋沉积物和化石的组成重建我们过去的气候方面所必需的。 这项工作需要在现代实验室中使用复杂的仪器。 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（ICP-MS）和相关的激光烧蚀（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研究，并在新的研究方向上扩展测量。我们的社会对海洋在管理地球气候方面的作用非常感兴趣;主要研究人员的研究将有助于从根本上了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。 新仪器也将完全融入本科生和研究生的教学和研究：（1）一个名为“地球科学无机质谱”的本科生/研究生课程将专注于ICP-MS理论和实践;（2）新设施将为罗格斯大学的Aresty，RISE和NSF本科生暑期项目研究经验支持的本科生研究提供具有挑战性的机会。此外，研究人员将与新的NSF资助的中心推进研究对社会的影响（阿里斯），以开发强调参与科学的学习机会。该项目将仿照NSF资助的罗格斯大学极地跨学科协调教育（ICE）计划，该计划已在全国21个教室成功实施。目前正在试行一个新的教育工作者课程，并将加以扩大，提供给有兴趣在教学中使用科学数据的新一批教育工作者。主要研究人员在扩大这种仪器的能力的研究方面享有盛誉，并培训了许多学生，包括许多妇女和代表性不足的少数民族，谁已经使用这些技能，有资格成功的学术职位，一旦他们离开罗格斯大学。这个奖项将用于购买高-分辨率电感耦合等离子体质谱仪，具有激光烧蚀样品引入单元和标准自动进样器和引入系统。 这种仪器对罗格斯-新不伦瑞克大学海洋和海岸科学系、地球和行星科学系以及环境科学系的成员以及罗格斯-纽瓦克大学和其他地方的相关系的用户的研究至关重要。新的ICP-MS将允许分析样品中微量元素的浓度，如海水，海洋颗粒，海洋生物的微小外壳和冰川冰。 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来分析固体样品的微小区域，例如深海珊瑚骨骼，而无需将样品溶解在酸性溶液中。 主要调查员目前的项目包括调查北极和南极极地海洋中的微量金属动态，与大型实地项目GEOTRACES和帕尔默长期生态研究有关，开发地球化学方法，从化石深海珊瑚和称为有孔虫的化石微生物外壳中的微量元素浓度重建过去的海洋化学，通过国际海洋发现计划（IODP）进行古海洋学重建。研究人员已经在这些领域的前沿超过20年，这个奖项使他们能够继续在这些研究领域的创新。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得的支持，通过评估使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。

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.