Automated ion analysis system to examine soil nutrient dynamics

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Nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur are important elements in soil environments. They are essential nutrients for plant growth, but in excess, can lead to environmental problems including ground- and surface water contamination and greenhouse gas emissions. Understanding the cycling of these nutrients through both native and managed ecosystems is critical to their management. For example, main areas of research include examining controls on individual nitrogen (N) cycle processes such as N-fixation and mineralization, which contribute to plant-available N, and controls on nitrification and denitrification, which contribute to environmentally-significant forms of N such as nitrate and nitrous oxide. This knowledge may in turn be applied to land use planning and soil nutrient management to ensure that ecosystems are managed to maximize plant nutrient availability while minimizing losses to the surrounding environment.Nutrient-cycling processes tend to vary temporally and spatially across the landscape, so to capture this variability, field measurement programs involve collecting a large number of soil samples and analyzing their nutrient content. This proposal is for an automated ion analysis system to allow for rapid, high quality analysis of these soil samples. When used in conjunction with complementary analytical techniques, including isotope ratio mass spectrometry and synchrotron spectroscopy, this system will fill in critical gaps in our understanding of nutrient cycling and movement in Canadian ecosystems ranging from the Prairies to the High Arctic. This information will add to the decision-making toolkit for key environmental planners, from individual farmers to federal policy makers.