| 英文摘要: | Isotopic analysis of individual chemical compounds is a technique that is quickly proving to be one of the most groundbreaking advances in biogeochemical research. This award provides funding to early career researchers and tenured faculty at the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) Center for Marine Science (CMS) to acquire an instrument for compound-specific isotopic analyses. The instrumentation will contribute to the teaching and research missions of both UNCW and CMS. Research projects that will utilize the instrumentation include: reconstructing paleoclimate of the circum-Caribbean and southeastern U.S, sourcing of atmospheric pollution, improving identification and characterization of prehistoric agriculture and land use, understanding polar food webs, reconstructing prehistoric tsunamis, storms, and changes in relative sea level, and investigating geoarchaeology of late Pleistocene deposits in the Paleolithic of Portuguese Estremadura. The PIs will incorporate the new instrumentation into a variety of graduate and undergraduate courses at UNCW. For example, students in the stable isotope geochemistry course will analyze standard mixtures of organic compounds from hypothetical stratigraphic profiles to infer ecological and climate change through time, while students in advanced organic chemistry techniques courses will examine potential adulteration of olive oil samples, demonstrating real-world application of this technique. Acquisition of this instrumentation will also facilitate collaboration with nearby institutions such as UNC-Chapel Hill, East Carolina University, North Carolina State University, and Western Carolina University.
Specifically, this award provides for the acquisition of a gas chromatograph (GC), GC combustion interface, and flow controller to be interfaced with an existing Thermo Scientific DELTA V Plus mass spectrometer by researchers spanning four academic departments at the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW). These upgrades will allow for the carbon, nitrogen, and hydrogen isotopic analyses of a wide variety of individual chemical compounds. The requested instrument will expand the capabilities of the UNCW stable isotope laboratory (SIL) and researchers within this region, given there is currently no instrument of this kind accessible to researchers in the state. The UNCW SIL is a core research and training facility located in at CMS and is currently used by more than 30 students, postdocs, and faculty from a wide variety of disciplines including anthropology, biology, chemistry, ecology, geography, geology, and marine science. The requested instrumentation will expand the analytical capabilities of the SIL and facilitate novel approaches to the active and future research topics of the researchers' intra- and inter-institutional collaborators, and their students. |