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

Bigelow Laboratory For Ocean Sciences, East Boothbay ME

Investigators

Abstract

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 Impacts This 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