Acquisition of a Continuous Flow Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometer System

在Paul A.Steudler的指导下，海洋生物实验室(MBL)获得了一笔赠款，用于获得连续流动同位素比质谱仪(CF-IRMS)系统的部分支持，该系统将支持MBL不断扩大的研究以及将稳定同位素技术应用于陆地和水生生态研究的本科生和研究生教育计划。新仪器的扩展能力将侧重于四项研究活动：(1)测定水生系统新陈代谢，(2)测定微生物系统的组成和营养来源，(3)确定调节碳循环和大气温室气体产生的来源和过程，以及(4)解决流域水和氮的来源和流动路径。新的CF-IRMS系统将使实验室的研究项目受益，包括位于马萨诸塞州普勒姆岛和哈佛森林以及阿拉斯加图利克湖的三个NSF长期生态研究站点，巴西的两个NASA和一个NSF支持的项目，以及其他17个联邦资助的项目。这笔赠款将用于几个MBL教育和培训项目：一个是环境科学(SES)学期计划；第二个是NSF本科生研究经验计划；第三个是通过我们与美国和外国大学PI的联合项目对研究生进行驻留和访问MBL的培训。新的教育活动包括布朗-MBL生物和环境科学研究生课程，该课程于2004年秋季开始。我们将教授三个关于稳定同位素的使用和新的CF-IRMS仪器能力的新工作坊：一个是为SES学生举办的为期两天的工作坊；第二个是1月份为Brown-MBL高级本科生和研究生举办的为期10天的工作坊；第三个是MBL夏季微生物多样性课程的周末工作坊，内容是新系统在阐明微生物群落的多样性和功能方面的能力。新的CF-IRMS系统将对研究、培训和教学活动产生重大影响。这一系统将使我们能够在生态系统生产力、区域和全球水平衡以及全球气候变化等重要问题上取得进展。新系统将使我们能够从烧瓶级别的实验转移到对生产力的区域估计，了解控制营养物质从陆地转移到水的过程，并获得关于土壤和水生微生物在碳和氮温室气体演化中所起作用的信息。关于哪些微生物参与这些系统中的各种C和N转换的知识显然与我们用来研究这些系统的方法和仪器的发展有关。新的CF-IRMS系统将极大地提高我们对生物地球化学过程与微生物种类组成和功能之间联系的理解。

A grant has been awarded to the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) under the direction of Paul A. Steudler for partial support to acquire a continuous flow isotope ratio mass spectrometer (CF-IRMS) system that will support the MBL's expanding research and undergraduate and graduate education program in the application of stable isotopic techniques to terrestrial and aquatic ecological research. The expanded capabilities of the new instrumentation will be focused on four research activities; (1) Determination of aquatic system metabolism, (2) Measurement of the composition and sources of nutrition of microbial systems, (3) Determination of the sources and processes regulating carbon cycling and production of atmospheric greenhouse gases and (4) Resolving the sources and flow paths of water and nitrogen in watersheds. The new CF-IRMS system will benefit the Laboratory's research program, including three NSF Long Term Ecological Research sites at Plum Island and Harvard Forest, MA and at Toolik Lake, Alaska, two NASA and one NSF supported program in Brazil and as well as 17 other federally funded projects. The grant will benefit several MBL educational and training programs: one is the Semester in Environmental Sciences (SES) program; second is the NSF program on Research Experience for Undergraduates; third is training of graduate students in residence and visiting the MBL through our joint projects with PI's at US and foreign universities. New educational activities include the Brown-MBL graduate program in Biological and Environmental Sciences that begins in the fall of 2004. We will teach three new workshops in the use of stable isotopes and the capabilities of the new CF-IRMS instrumentation: one is a two-day workshop to SES students; second is a 10 day workshop in January to Brown-MBL advanced undergraduate and graduate students and the third is a weekend workshop for the MBL summer Microbial Diversity course on the capabilities of the new system in elucidating the diversity and function of microbial communities. The new CF-IRMS system will have significant impacts on research, training and teaching activities. This system will allow us to make progress on important questions in ecosystem productivity, regional and global water balance and global climate change issues. The new system will allow us to move from flask-level experiments to regional estimates of productivity, to understand the processes that control the transfer of materials such as nutrients from land to water, and to gain information on the role of soil and aquatic microbes on the evolution of carbon and nitrogen greenhouse gases. Knowledge on exactly what microbes are involved in various C and N transformations in these systems is clearly tied to developments in the methods and instrumentation that we use to study these systems. Our understanding of the links between biogeochemical processes and microbial species composition and function will be greatly improved by the new CF-IRMS system.