Acquisition of a high resolution inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer and ion chromatograph for environmental biogeochemical research and teaching at UMass Boston

该奖项全部或部分由《2021年美国救援计划法案》（公法117-2）资助。获得所要求的仪器将支持从地球、环境和海洋科学到生态学、生理学和生物化学等不同领域的研究。该仪器还将通过为马萨诸塞大学波士顿分校、马萨诸塞大学系统和全球合作者提供经济可靠的创新技术，促进关键环境问题的合作和跨学科研究，以及知识产权开发。这些仪器将支持潜在有毒微量元素的生物地球化学和毒理学研究，包括这些元素如何在包括沿海海洋在内的自然水生系统中发生和循环，以及对作为潜在环境污染物的金属纳米粒子和医疗应用的新研究。这些仪器将支持本科生和研究生在尖端环境和生物地球化学分析方面的培训，并将作为马萨诸塞大学波士顿分校环境学院、马萨诸塞大学波士顿分校科学与数学学院、马萨诸塞大学系统和全系统校际海洋科学研究生项目的教育和研究任务的重要资源。购置这些仪器所提供的研究机会将促进大学的跨学科研究和教学，并增加校园内必要的研究和训练仪器。这些仪器将使几条研究路线成为可能，最值得注意的是对天然水域中微量元素形态的调查，包括各种潜在有毒金属和类金属，如砷（As）、钒(V)、钨(W)、铬（Cr）和铕（Eu），这些金属和类金属难以量化。这些工具还将支持：实验室实验研究，以测量描述在环境中可能更具流动性的水硫砷酸盐络合物形成的平衡常数；对14种天然存在的镧系元素（通常称为稀土元素或ree）的研究，这些元素被认为是国家安全和经济繁荣所必需的关键金属；纳米颗粒毒理学；海洋双壳类动物血淋巴中的金属运输；以及海洋中的生物地球化学颗粒通量。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。

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). The acquisition of the requested instrumentation will support research that advances knowledge in diverse fields from Earth, environmental, and marine sciences to ecology, physiology, and biochemistry. The instrumentation will also foster collaborative and trans-disciplinary research on critical environmental issues as well as intellectual property development by providing affordable and reliable access to innovative technology for researchers at the University of Massachusetts Boston, the University of Massachusetts system, and collaborators worldwide. The instruments will support biogeochemical and toxicological research of potentially toxic trace elements, including how these elements occur and are cycled in natural aquatic systems including the coastal ocean as well as novel investigations of metal nanoparticles as potential environmental contaminants and in medical applications. The instruments will support undergraduate and graduate student training in cutting edge environmental and biogeochemical analyses and will serve as an important resource for the educational and research missions of the School for the Environment at UMass Boston, the College of Science and Mathematics at UMass Boston, the University of Massachusetts system, and the system-wide Intercampus Marine Science Graduate Program. The research opportunities provided by the acquisition of these instruments will advance trans-disciplinary research and teaching at the University and increase essential research and training instrumentation on campus.The instruments will make possible several lines of research, most notably, the investigation of trace element speciation in natural waters, including various potentially toxic metals and metalloids like arsenic (As), vanadium (V), tungsten (W), chromium (Cr), and europium (Eu), which are difficult to quantify. The instruments will also support: laboratory experimental studies to measure equilibrium constants describing the formation of aqueous thioarsenate complexes, which may be more mobile in the environment, studies of the 14 naturally occurring lanthanide series elements (commonly referred to as the rare earth elements or REEs), which are considered critical metals necessary for the Nation’s security and economic prosperity, nanoparticle toxicology, metal transport in the hemolymph of marine bivalves, and biogeochemical particles fluxes in the ocean.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.