Near infrared spectrometer for ecological research

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Many research activities in ecology and evolution involve the chemical analysis of tissues, soil or water. Because of natural variation in the field, proper chemical quantification often requires a large number of samples and many different chemical components. The combination of many samples, many compounds, and limited tissue mass creates a severe bottleneck in terms of money and time and this constrains the quality of ecological research. Recent advances in NIRS (Near Infrared Spectrometry) technology have largely removed such bottlenecks. NIRS systems use the entire infrared spectrum of tissues, combined with calibration curves of known chemical compounds, to rapidly, accurately and quantitatively determine chemical constituants of any tissue, soil or liquid sample. This proposal is to purchase a NIRS system and to make it available to the 45 researchers (all NSERC funded) who are members of the "Centre d'études sur la forêt"