An Isotope-Ratio Mass Spectrometer for Ecology and Environmental Biology at Northern Arizona University

摘要DBI-9729600 将在北方亚利桑那大学购买一台同位素比率质谱仪，用于生态学和环境生物学领域的研究。 该仪器将由5个不同部门的15名教职员工使用，以解决诸如通过食物网追踪能量流，确定环境污染物的命运（例如，农业肥料向水生生态系统的流失），测量植物利用水的效率，确定河岸植被的水源，测量陆地生态系统中氮和碳的周转，特别是这些过程对环境扰动的反应变化。 用途还包括考古学中的应用，例如确定人类社会何时依赖玉米等某些植物物种，玉米具有独特的碳同位素“特征”，反映在消费者的骨头中。

Abstract DBI-9729600 An isotope-ratio mass spectrometer for research in the fields of Ecology and Environmental Biology at Northern Arizona University will be purchased. This instrument will be used by 15 faculty members in 5 different departments to address questions such as tracing energy flow through food webs, determing the fate of environmental contaminants (e.g., runoff of fertilizer from agriculture into aquatic ecosystems), measuring the efficiency with which plants use water, identifying the sources of water to riparian vegetation, and measuring turnover of nitrogen and carbon in terrestrial ecosystems, particularly changes in these processes in response to environmental perturbation. Use will also include applications in Archaeology, determining, for example, when human societies have relied on certain plant species such as corn, which has a distinctive carbon isotope "signature" that is reflected in the bones of consumers.