FSML-Enhanced Cooperative Radiochemistry Research and Education at the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences

Bigelow实验室获得一笔赠款，为其新的放射化学设施配备1）用于低水平计数的液体闪烁计数器（LSC），2）两个专用的可堆叠培养箱，用于在不同的温度和光照条件下维持放射化学实验，3）两个带专用水浴的光合作用培养箱，用于测量浮游植物的光生物学速率作为光照强度的函数。 实际上，这一设备对于该设施的功能以及实验室的使命至关重要。准确测量放射性示踪剂的能力一直是毕格罗实验室的核心。其主要目标是“了解驱动世界海洋生态系统的关键过程，它们的演变及其与地球上生命的基本关系。“FSML对放射化学设备的要求将使PI在测量海洋微生物速率方面保持领先地位。毕格罗实验室的高级研究科学家研究海洋病毒、细菌、浮游植物、浮游动物和低等无脊椎动物。 他们不再仅仅研究真光层的过程，而是增加了主要的研究项目，包括大气化学，热液喷口群落和深部地球圈的微生物。 统一所有这些群体的是需要测量速率：生物速率（吸收、同化、生长、死亡、放牧）和化学速率（氧化、还原、气体交换/平衡）。 放射性示踪剂技术仍然是定量（和直接）测量海洋中此类速率的最佳方法之一。 更广泛的影响这种研究设备将参与当前和未来毕格罗博士后研究人员的培训，在微生物生态学，生理学，分子生物学和微生物地球化学之间的接口工作。毕格罗实验室的使命的一个重要组成部分是教育，它有一个强大的推广计划。 本提案中的合作PI参与了科尔比学期的住宿计划以及科尔比的一月计划（“一月计划”）的教学。 LSC的具体细节和科学结果将被纳入我们的本科生的课程，使他们能够学习示踪实验的基础知识和与LSC相关的技术。毕格罗实验室的科学咖啡馆系列讲座促进公众参与尖端科学研究，这种设备使科学更容易为更广泛的受众所接受。这个项目的所有PI都将参与这个越来越受欢迎的项目。 最后，毕格罗实验室在有害藻华、海洋酸化、富营养化、碳循环等领域进行与社会相关的放射性示踪研究的能力，完全依赖于不再可用的老化LSC和无法以电子方式访问的数据。因此，毕格罗放射化学设施的这一新的LSC和相关设备将进一步延续

Bigelow Laboratory is awarded a grant to outfit their new Radiochemistry Facility with 1) a Liquid Scintillation Counter (LSC) for low-level counting, 2) two dedicated, stackable incubators for maintaining radiochemistry experiments at different temperature and light conditions and 3) two photosynthetron incubators with dedicated water baths for measuring photobiological rates of phytoplankton as a function of light intensity. Indeed, this equipment is critical to the functionality of the facility as well as the very mission of the laboratory. The ability to accurately measure radio-tracers has been at the very core of Bigelow Laboratory?s primary goal, "to understand key processes driving the world's ocean ecosystems, their evolution, and their fundamental relationship to life on Earth." This FSML request for radiochemistry equipment will allow the PIs to maintain preeminence in the measurement of microbial rates in the sea. Bigelow Laboratory's senior research scientists work with ocean viruses, bacteria, phytoplankton, zooplankton, and lower invertebrates. They no longer study just the processes of the euphotic zone but have added major research programs including atmospheric chemistry, hydrothermal vent communities, and microbes of the deep geosphere. What unifies all these groups is the need to measure rates: biological rates (uptake, assimilation, growth, mortality, grazing) and chemical rates (oxidation, reduction, gas exchange/ equilibration). Radiotracer technologies still represent one of the best ways to quantitatively (and directly) measure such rates in the sea. Broader ImpactsThis research equipment will be involved in the training of current and future Bigelow postdoctoral researchers, working at the interface between microbial ecology, physiology, molecular biology, and biogeochemistry. A significant part of Bigelow Laboratory's mission is education and it has a strong outreach program. Co-PIs in this proposal are involved in teaching the Colby semester-in-residence program as well as Colby's January Program ("Jan-plan"). Specific details and scientific results from the LSC will be incorporated into the curriculum of our undergraduate students so they can learn the fundamentals of tracer experiments and the technology associated with the LSC. Bigelow Laboratory's Café Scientifique lecture series promotes public engagement with cutting-edge scientific research, of the sort made possible by this equipment, making science more accessible to a broader audience. All PIs on this project will participate in this increasingly popular program. Finally, the ability of Bigelow Laboratory to perform radiotracer research on society-relevant research in fields such as harmful algal blooms, ocean acidification, eutrophication, carbon cycling, etc., has completely relied on an aged LSC that is no longer serviceable and data that cannot be accessed electronically. Thus, this new LSC and associated equipment for the Bigelow Radiochemistry Facility will further the continuation