Grant: Research Tools and Instruments

The proposal is to acquire a bench-top instrument that allows high-accuracy measurement of dissolved organic and inorganic carbon as well as total dissolved nitrogen on samples of seawater from the field and laboratory research including sediment pore waters, saline wastewaters and atmospheric water (e.g. fog water). The instrument will be a workhorse instrument and will be used by a wide range of investigators at Dalhousie University (at least 10 different research groups) and beyond, including chemical and biological oceanographers, marine ecologists, atmospheric scientists and marine geoscientists. The proposed methodology represents a widely-accepted, "best-practice" standard in ocean and atmospheric science and is also used widely in water-testing laboratories. However there is no such instrument at Dalhousie that is available for use with saline and seawater samples, given the extra maintenance, operating and quality-control issues involved. Based on prior experience with a loaned instrument, the instrument will be heavily used and can be operated at Dalhousie effectively in order to produce high-quality data (as evidenced by analysis of Consensus Reference Materials). In addition to supporting research, training of students on the instrument will result in marketable skills given the widespread use of this type of instrumentation in sectors other than oceanographic and atmospheric research.