Improving and Expanding Organic Carbon and Nitrogen Analyses at the Baruch Marine Field Laboratory

University South Carolina Research Foundation, Columbia SC

Investigators

Abstract

A grant has been awarded to the University of South Carolina Baruch Marine Field Laboratory (BMFL) under the direction of Dr Eric Smith to support the improvement and expansion of their capability to measure organic carbon and nitrogen. Organic carbon and nitrogen in aquatic environments exist in both dissolved and particulate form, requiring separate instrumentation for each phase. Carbon measurements have become fundamental to a wide spectrum of research, both because carbon is a logical currency for tracing flows of materials through food webs and because of the widespread interest in the role individual organisms and ecosystems play in global carbon cycling. Similarly, the analytical ability to measure nitrogen in the organic form is increasingly recognized as critical to research areas that range from predatorprey dynamics to coastal eutrophication. Broader Impacts BMFL has an excellent record of outreach to, and education for, the region (including an extensive effort to translate science to the lay audience), and involves many students from USC. This proposal will support the continued acquisition of various long-term time-series data.