This award to Old Dominion University provides support for the acquisition of seagoing equipment and scientific instruments for collection and storage of uncontaminated sea water samples for trace element analysis. The instruments will be used to support the GEOTRACES program funded separately by NSF, as well as other research projects requiring special handling to ensure the integrity of trace element concentrations. Equipment supported here includes a winch, special non-metallic conducting cable, a conductivity-temperature-depth (CTD) instrument with 24-bottle sampling capability, plus computers and sensors for auxiliary measurements. All components are coated to prevent sample contamination by trace metals or other trace elements. Broader Impacts: These shared-use instruments will allow the sampling of trace elements for chemical oceanographic research and studies of the factors governing biological productivity of the world oceans, past and present. ***
