Acquisition of Instrumentation for Enhancing Chemical Analyses in Ecological Research

生态学研究往往通过获得先进的 化学分析仪器，但通常不是 在每个生态学家的实验室里拥有每一台仪器是非常划算的。 该提案要求提供资金，用于购买共用 仪器，将允许一组五个生态学家在 福德姆大学考尔德保护和生态中心， 不同的研究兴趣，以提高他们的化学分析 能力的 仪器包括Technicon TrAAcs-800 元素分析仪，Hewlett Packard HP 5890 A毛细管气体 色谱仪，沃茨高效液相色谱仪 系统，以及用于现有系统的珀金埃尔默HGA石墨炉 Perking-Elmer 1100 B原子吸收分光光度计。 这些 仪器将用于分析基本无机物 水、沉积物和植物组织样品中的营养物， 有机化合物如植物色素和化感物质，和 微量元素和金属，如铝和硒。 的 研究学科，这些加强了分析 将应用的能力包括行为生态学（觅食 基于营养质量的大型灵长类动物的选择）， 群落生态学（物种对营养、金属和 生物变化）和生态系统生态学（地球化学循环， 古生态学、气候变化）。

Ecological research is often enhanced by access to sophisticated instrumentation for chemical analysis, but it is usually not cost-effective to have every instrument in every ecologist's lab. This proposal requests funds for the acquisition of shared-use instrumentation that will permit a group of five ecologists at Fordham University's Calder Conservation and Ecology Center, with diverse research interests, to enhance their chemical analytical capabilities. The instruments include a Technicon TrAAcs-800 element analyzer, a Hewlett Packard HP5890A Capillary Gas chromatograph, a Waters High Performance Liquid Chromatography System, and a Perkin-Elmer HGA Graphite Furnace for an existing Perking-Elmer 1100B atomic absorption spectrophotometer. These instruments will be used in the analysis of essential inorganic nutrients in water, sediment and plant tissue samples, complex organic compounds such as plant pigments and allelochemicals, and trace elements and metals such as aluminum and selenium. The research disciplines to which these enhanced analytical capabilities will be applied include behavioral ecology (foraging choices of large primates based on nutritional quality), community ecology (species responses to nutrients, metal and biotic changes) and ecosystems ecology (biogeochemical cycles, paleoecology, climate change).