Recipient Organization
UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA
(N/A)
FAIRBANKS,AK 99775
Performing Department
Natural Resources and Extensio
Non Technical Summary
Stable isotopes are natural tracers that can help us understandbiological and physical processes, including the change in these processes over time or in response to changes in the environment. Stable isotopes can be measured in many different materials, like soils, plant leaves and wood, water, and air. An Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometer witha laser ablation unit, elemental analyzer, and gas bench (IRMS system) is required tomeasure the range of stable isotopes in these different materials. This equipment will allow for cutting edge research on the boreal forest to occur. For 52 years, the Forest Soils Lab at the University of Alaska Fairbanks has been a shared use facility that is open for the researchers at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and from other entities (including Alaska Division of State Forestry) to utilize at low cost, which includes using equipment such as this new IRMS system. The existing IRMS in the FSL is no longer functional and cannot be repaired, so the IRMS system that will be purchased with this grant will replace this obsolete IRMS and greatly expand the ability to stable isotope reserach at UAF.Once this equipment is operational, we will advertise its capabilities and availability to the UAF campus community and invite researchers to do preliminary sample analysis. These datacan be used to develop research proposals to further use the equipment and do ground breaking research in Alaska's boreal forest.
Animal Health Component
10%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
80%
Applied
10%
Developmental
10%
Goals / Objectives
Stable isotopes are natural tracers that allow for quantifying biological and physical processes, including the causes, consequences, magnitude, and direction of changes in those processes. The applications of stable isotopes for ecosystem study are broad and the examples are many. Stable isotopes are a well-established tool to study ecosystems that have new applications with technological advancements that support transformative research. The Forest Soils Lab (FSL) at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) is positioned to meet the needs of researchers by supporting applied and fundamental transformative research on the boreal forest and quantifying the impacts of climate change.The primary objective of this project is to purchase an isotope ratio mass spectrometer (IRMS) with a laser ablation unit, elemental analyzer, and gas bench (hereafter, IRMS system) to replace both the existing IRMS and the Picarro water stable isotope analyzer in FSL. The FSL is a core facility with shared-use instrumentation and space that is part of the Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station in the Institute of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Extension at UAF. Procurement of the IRMS system will allow the FSL to continue its 52-year service to the UAF staff, faculty, postdocs, and student users of the facility at a low-cost that supports fundamental and applied transformative research of Alaska's boreal forest. The boreal forest is a complex and rapidly changing environment with little research attention, and advanced analytical systems such as the IRMS system proposed herein will increase the research capabilities of America's arctic university.Briefly, procurement of this IRMS system will improve the existing capacity of the FSL to analyze clean water for Oxygen and Hydrogen stable isotope ratios and solid samples (including soil, plant and animal material) for Carbon and Nitrogen stable isotope ratios and elemental concentrations. Additionally, the new IRMS system will increase the capacity of the FSL to support new research by increasing the suite of stable isotopes and materials that can be analyzed: solid samples Sulfur, Hydrogen, and Oxygen, water samples for Hydrogen and Oxygen (regardless of contamination level), gas samples for Carbon (of Methane and CO2) and Nitrogen (of Nitrous Oxide), and dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) of waters.
Project Methods
As this is an equipment grant that does not have specific methods, I will include the description of research equipment and needs.There are several reasons we need to replace two pieces of equipment (IRMS and Picarro water analyzer) with a single integrated unit in the FSL shared-use facility. The current isotope ratio mass spectrometer in the FSL (IRMS, Callisto CF-IRMS, Sercon, a UK-based company) must be replaced because its functionality is decreasing with its age (purchased in 2000), as it frequently stops working, often provides erroneous data, and repair and maintenance have become cost prohibitive. Additionally, the current Picarro water isotope analyzer in the FSL must be replaced because it is a first-generation system that has significant nonlinear drift in data that is difficult to quantify and correct, and the company is no longer providing support for this model. In addition to drift, the model the FSL currently has cannot accurately measure the isotope composition of water (plants, soils, stream) with organic contamination compared to the IRMS (West, Goldsmith, Brooks, and Dawson, 2010). While they offer the "Chem Correct" software for our model, the instrument still produces erroneous values for highly organic water samples. Rather than replacing our current Picarro, we plan to replace it with an IRMS due to the higher precision and stability of measurements (West, Goldsmith, Brooks, and Dawson, 2010) and the capability to measure clean and contaminated waters.Second, we want to upgrade the IRMS with a laser ablation unit, but it is not possible to integrate a new laser ablation unit with the existing IRMS. The IRMS system we plan to purchase with this funding is integrated with the laser ablation unit, so the system functions as one unit. Third, we want to increase the suite of isotope measurements for the users of our shared facility that the current IRMS and Picarro systems cannot support, as our current IRMS only measures Carbon and Nitrogen isotopes and elemental concentrations in organic material, and the Picarro measures Oxygen and Hydrogen Isotopes of clean water (including water extracted from animal samples). The increased capabilities of the new equipment are detailed below.This funding will be used to purchase the following equipment IRMS system from Thermo Electron North America LLC - a US based company: DELTA V Plus Mass Spectrometer that includes a universal triple collector, HD collector, and computer package with the ISODAT software suite (#0723705). The equipment includes an Elemental Analyzer (EA) for high throughput bulk isotope analysis, which includes a ConFlo IV Universal Interface for all Continuous Flow peripherals (#1222750) and a flash IRMS EA for Carbon, Nitrogen, Sulfur, and a second high temperature reactor for Oxygen and Hydrogen, including an autosampler for liquid water analyses (#0723642). Lastly, the equipment includes a ESL NWR213 Laser system (laser ablation or LA) with a 12 month warranty (#NWR213), a combustion furnace (ETO), a Gas Bench II interface and sample preparation device including an autosampler (#0722264), and a CH4/N2O trace gas pre-concentration device (PreCon, #1068491). The equipment also includes installation, one year of full parts and labor, one-year warranty, and will be installed by a US based service organization that offers onsite support. Figure 1 in Zhang et al. (2020) shows a photograph of an analogous system. This IRMS system is a well-integrated piece of equipment, wherein removal of any aspect of this unit would prevent it from measuring the samples and isotopes that are required by the research supported by the FSL.The new IRMS system will provide the capability for many types of sample analyses to support UAF's cutting edge boreal research. The EA Isolink IRMS system can combust solid samples for bulk analysis of Carbon, Nitrogen, and Sulfur isotopic ratios. This advanced system has reduced the challenges involved with measuring Sulfur that we were unable to overcome with our current IRMS. This IRMS system also has a pyrolysis furnace to analyze solid or liquid samples for Hydrogen and Oxygen isotope ratios. The EA Isolink has several new patented features such as a ramped GC oven allowing faster samples analysis, and a Helium management system reducing overall Helium consumption and allowing lower cost per sample analysis. The Gasbench IRMS system can be used to accurately measure the Hydrogen and Oxygen isotope ratios of water samples, regardless of any organic material or other interferences that limit cavity ring down spectrometer (CRDS) systems like the Picarro water analyzer. In addition, the Gasbench can analyze Carbon and Nitrogen of gas samples and dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) of waters. The PreCon in combination with the Gasbench and IRMS can analyze air samples for Carbon isotopes of Methane or CO2 or the Nitrogen isotope signature of Nitrous Oxide of air samples. The Laser ablation unit incorporated with the combustion oven of the Precon and the Gasbench allow in-situ sampling of solid surfaces, use low sampling volume, and have high spatial resolution, to obtain the Carbon isotope distribution within the samples. This IRMS system is scalable, wherein additional capabilities can be added in the future depending on UAF researcher needs.The UAF campus houses other mass spectrometers, but they are dedicated to a single PI's research and the labs do not have resources to support other research on campus. UAF has a stable isotope facility (SIF) with a laser ablation unit interfaced with a ICP-mass spectrometer which measures trace minerals (Strontium and Lead). The UAF stable isotope facility provides a range of measurements to support research, but it is a fee-based facility that can be cost-prohibitive for graduate student and post-doc projects and for exploratory/preliminary research without funding support. The IRMS system that we propose to purchase compliments measurements available through the UAF SIF because ours will focus on C, H, N, O, and S (not trace minerals) in organic materials. The system we propose to purchase is unique due to the enhanced capability of quantifying Carbon isotopes in samples at a fine scale and small sample size with the laser ablation unit as well as the EA and gas bench. Additionally, our low-cost model supports emerging research, grant development, and higher through put of samples with lower cost per sample. In addition to providing technician support to run samples on the IRMS system, the FSL provides support or training on processing samples, like grinding and weighing material, at no cost to the researcher.