Grant: Research Tools and Instruments

My lab's central research focus has been the development and implementation of paleolimnological techniques to reconstruct long-term environmental changes. Our research deals with multiple environmental problems that affect lakes including local (e.g. land clearance, agriculture etc.), regional (e.g. ecological effects of invading species), and global, trans-boundary issues (e.g. aerial contaminants, climatic change). Advanced imaging capabilities (camera, software, computers, monitors) are critical for the observation, measurement, and photomicrography of the fine structures that identify microscopic indicators (mainly algal species, and especially diatoms and chrysophytes, as well as the taxonomic-specific chitinous remains of various invertebrates) used in our research. From these data, we reconstruct ecosystem changes, generate and test hypotheses, define natural variability, and evaluate models. This proposal requests funding to replace our ageing (~20-year-old) and failing digital cameras and associated software and computer facilities for our 11 high-resolution microscopes. This equipment is essential for producing high quality images of the microscopic indicators that form the foundation of our environmental reconstructions.