MRI Acquisition Proposal: Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometer

该奖项为购买两台质谱仪提供资金，用于测量含有碳，氢，氮，氧和硫的样品的同位素组成。 这些仪器将满足新罕布什尔州大学（UNH）各种研究和教育项目的需求。 对几个自动化外围设备的资助将允许扩展仪器的能力，以包括水、碳酸盐、痕量气体和挥发性有机化合物等样品类型。 这些系统将被放置在地球、海洋和空间研究所（EOS）的一个新设施中。 将聘请一名专职人员，以确保设施的顺利运作。 仪器的操作和维护将由实验室经理监督，该经理还将负责培训新用户。 用户将包括微生物生态学、森林生态学、海洋生态学、生态系统科学、水文学、地球化学、大气科学和古气候学的研究人员。 这种研究得益于通过复杂的地球化学过程追踪化学元素的能力，方法是利用同位素比率的变化来监测环境中特定的同位素分馏过程。 新仪器将使教师和学生受益于质谱和样品制备的最新技术进步，提高了稳定同位素比测定的速度，准确性和分辨率。 这些进展现在使科学家能够更详细地探索地球系统，从而对生态系统受气候影响以及相互影响的机制有了新的认识。新设施将加强研究和教学的基础设施，例如，允许在现有的几门课程中纳入新的单元，并开发一门关于同位素测量在生态学、地球化学和全球环境变化中的应用的新课程。 这门新课程将补充现有的同位素地球化学课程。 将利用一个计划中的网站向潜在用户宣传这一设施，并提供关于在从分子到生态系统的尺度上利用同位素数据建立生态系统模型的潜力的信息。

This award provides funds for acquisition of two mass spectrometers to be used to measure isotopic composition of samples containing carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, and sulfur. The instruments will satisfy needs of diverse research and educational programs at the University of New Hampshire (UNH). Funding for several automated peripheral devices will permit extension of the instruments' capabilities to include sample types such as water, carbonates, trace gases, and volatile organic compounds. The systems will be placed in a new facility at the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space (EOS). A dedicated will be hired to ensure the smooth operation of the facility. Operation and maintenance of the instrumentation will be overseen by a lab manager who will also be responsible for training of new users. The users will include researchers in microbial ecology, forest ecology, marine ecology, ecosystems science, hydrology, biogeochemistry, atmospheric science, and paleoclimatology. Such research benefits from the ability to track chemical elements through complex biogeochemical processes by using variations in isotopic ratios to monitor specific, isotopically fractionating processes in the environment. The new instrumentation will allow faculty and students to benefit from recent technological advances in mass spectrometry and sample preparation that have increased the speed, accuracy, and resolution of determination of stable isotope ratios. Such advances now allow scientists to explore the Earth system in increasing detail, leading to new insights into the mechanisms by which ecosystems are influenced by the climate, and by each other. The new facility will enhance the infrastructure for research and teaching by permitting, for example, incorporation of new modules in several existing courses, and development of a new course on applications of isotopic measurements in ecology, biogeochemistry, and global environmental change. This new course will complement an existing course in isotope geochemistry. A planned web site will be used to publicize the facility to potential users and to provide information about the potential to use isotopic data in modeling of ecosystems at scales from that of the molecule to that of the ecosystem.