Grant: Research Tools and Instruments - Category 1 (<$150,000)

Funds are request for the purchase of a Turner Designs 10-AU Field Fluorometer for the quantitative measurement of chlorophyll a. The measurement of the plant pigments, chlorophyll a, is the only rapid chemical method available to estimate living plant biomass in the sea. The average concentration of chlorophyll a in the euphotic zone of the World Ocean is ca. 0.33 mg m-3, however this can vary over a 1000-fold range. Accurate chlorophyll data are critical for determining the magnitude and variability of global ocean primary production, the effect of biological processes on CO2 drawdown in surface waters and for improving our understanding of phytoplankton dynamics. Chlorophyll a concentrations are also widely used as a correlate with an extensive suite of ecosystem, food web and climate processes, variables and parameters that are otherwise difficult to obtain. The Ocean Sciences Centre is recognized for excellence in biological and chemical oceanography, microbial ecology, food web dynamics, aquaculture and fish genomic. It has modern and well-equipped analytical facilities and molecular and genomics laboratories, however it lacks a modern fluorometer, which is an essential piece of oceanographic /analytical equipment. This Turner 10-AU fluorometer will support the eight NSERC-funded oceanographic research programmes of the three applicants, and it will be a potentially important tool for the training of their 13 graduate students. The instrument will also be used by several other researchers at the Memorial University of Newfoundland and their students.