9617878 Hodell This grant provides $156,271 as partial support of the costs of acquiring a new continuous flow, stable isotope ratio mass spectrometer (CF-SIRMS) with an automated carbonate sample preparation and introduction device ("Kiel device"). The new SIRMS will complement an existing but dated VG Prism II mass spectrometer (circa 1985) and will benefit a large group of faculty at Florida who utilize stable isotopes in their research and have specific needs for large sample throughput for studies in paleooceanography, paleolimnology and paleoclimatology that require large numbers of analyses on small samples (down to 10 micrograms) from marine and lacustrine sediment cores including, oxygen isotopic analyses of carbonate microfossils, corals and gastropods as indicators of paleo water temperatures, stable isotope stratigraphic analysis of ODP cores and assessment of the viability of the oxygen isotopic records contained in biogenic silica (diatoms and radiolarians) as an alternate and complimentary climate proxy to stable isotopic analysis of carbonate microfossils. Additionally, continuous flow SIRMS will allow measurement of carbon, nitrogen and sulfur isotopes on a single gas sample enhancing studies utilizing, stable isotopic analyses of marine invertebrate and vertebrate skeletal material as proxies of paleoecology, analysis of C/N, del 13-C and del 15- N of organics in lacustrine sediments as indicators of paleoproductivity and nutrient cycling, studies of paleodiet based on stable isotopic analyses of bone collagen and studies of early diagenesis and trophic dynamics utilizing stable isotopes as tracers of the fate of organic matter. ***
