Elemental analyzer

用这笔赠款购买的设备是一台元素分析仪。这是一个不可或缺的生态研究工具，并将形成伯特伦博士的研究实验室的核心。元素分析仪将允许Bertram博士和她的学生确定食物质量（氮丰富度）如何影响昆虫身体的营养成分，生长速度，发育时间，成年体型和终生繁殖成功。确定食物质量如何影响身体组成是很重要的，因为昆虫定位，进食和保留必需和有限营养素（如氮）的能力被认为会深刻影响它们的生长速度，繁殖和生存。元素分析仪还将使Bertram博士和她的学生能够确定保留氮的能力是否是可遗传的，并确定遗传和环境之间的任何可能的相互作用（昆虫的遗传是否影响它们定位，食用和保留植物氮的能力）。如果没有元素分析仪，就不可能确定植物或昆虫含有多少碳和氮。不幸的是，卡尔顿大学没有一个。而渥太华大学在G. G. Hatch稳定同位素实验室，运行每个样品的成本非常高（18美元/样品），因此购买元素分析仪更具成本效益。所要求的元素分析仪将存放在Bertram博士的实验室，该实验室旨在分析昆虫的健康和身体成分。它将提供给多个用户（化学系的同事已经表示有兴趣），并在研究和本科生和研究生的培训中每天使用。

The equipment to be purchased with this grant is an elemental analyzer. This is an indispensable ecological research tool and will form the nucleus of Dr. Bertram's research laboratory. The elemental analyzer will allow Dr. Bertram and her students to determine how food quality (nitrogen richness) influences insect body nutrient composition, growth rate, development time, adult body size, and lifetime reproductive success. Determining how food quality affects body composition is important because the insects' ability to locate, eat, and retain essential and limited nutrients such as nitrogen is thought to profoundly affect their growth rate, reproduction, and survival. The elemental analyzer will also enable Dr. Bertram and her students to determine whether the ability to retain nitrogen is heritable, and ascertain any possible interplay between genetics and the environment (whether the insect's heritage affects their ability to locate, eat, and retain nitrogen from plants). Ascertaining how much carbon and nitrogen a plant or insect contains is not possible without an elemental analyzer. Unfortunately, Carleton University does not have one. While the University of Ottawa has elemental analyzers in the G.G. Hatch Stable Isotope Laboratory, the cost of running each sample is so high ($18/sample) that it is much more cost effective to purchase an elemental analyzer. The requested elemental analyzer will be housed in Dr. Bertram's laboratory which is designed for the analysis of insect fitness and body composition. It will be accessible to multiple users (colleagues from chemistry have already expressed interest) and used on a daily basis in research and in the training of undergraduate and graduate students.