MRI: Acquisition of a Laser Ablation High Resolution Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer for Investigations of Ocean and Climate

Rutgers University New Brunswick, New Brunswick NJ

Investigators

Abstract

Fundamental understanding of the geochemistry of the ocean is required to advance basic knowledge of the world we live in, and to reconstruct aspects of our past climate from the composition of ocean sediments and fossils. This work requires sophisticated instrumentation in a modern laboratory. This award provides the funding for a group of researchers at Rutgers University to purchase a new mass spectrometer (ICP-MS) and an associated laser ablation (LA) sample introduction system, so that they can continue their ongoing research into trace elements in seawater and ocean sediments, and to expand their measurements in new research directions. Our society is urgently interested in the role of the ocean in governing earth's climate; the research of the Principle Investigators will contribute to the fundamental understanding of physical, chemical and biological processes in the ocean that drive the exchange of carbon dioxide with the atmosphere. The new instruments will also be integrated fully into undergraduate and graduate teaching and research: (1) A combined undergraduate/graduate class entitled "Inorganic Mass Spectrometry for Earth Sciences" will be taught focusing on ICP-MS theory and practice; (2) The new facility will offer challenging opportunities for undergraduate research supported by Rutgers' Aresty, RISE, and the NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates summer programs. In addition, the researchers will work with the new NSF-funded center Advancing the Impact of Research on Society (ARIS) to develop learning opportunities emphasizing participation in science. This project will be modeled on the NSF-funded Rutgers Polar-Interdisciplinary Coordinated Education (ICE) program, that has been successfully implemented in twenty-one classrooms across the country. A new educator course is currently being piloted and will be expanded and offered to a new cohort of educators interested in using scientific data in their teaching. The Principle Investigators have an established reputation for research that expands the capabilities of this type of instrumentation, and have trained many students, including many women and under-represented minorities, who have used these skills to qualify successfully for academic positions once they leave Rutgers. This award will be used to purchase a high-resolution inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer with a Laser Ablation sample introduction unit and standard autosampler and introduction systems. This instrumentation is crucial to the research of members of the Departments of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Earth and Planetary Sciences and Environmental Sciences at Rutgers-New Brunswick, as well as users from associated departments at Rutgers-Newark and elsewhere. The new ICP-MS will allow analysis of minute concentrations of trace elements in samples such as seawater, ocean particles, the tiny shells of marine organisms, and glacial ice. The LA will add new capability to the laboratory, and will allow tiny regions of solid samples, such as deep-sea coral skeletons, to be analyzed by vaporizing the solid and injecting the resulting condensed gasses directly into the MS, without the need to dissolve the sample in an acid solution. The current projects of the Principle Investigators include investigation of trace metal dynamics in the Arctic and Antarctic polar oceans, associated with the large field programs GEOTRACES and the Palmer Long Term Ecological Research, the development of geochemical methods to reconstruct past ocean chemistry from trace element concentrations in fossil deep-sea corals and the shells of fossil micro-organisms called foraminifera, and paleoceanographic reconstructions through the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP). The researchers have been at the forefront of these fields for more than twenty years, and this award allows them to continue to innovate in these research areas. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.