Grant: Research Tools and Instruments

This proposal requests funding for a preparative gas chromatography system interfaced with a preparative fraction collector. The instrument provides the only means for the separation, isolation, and collection of individual non-polar molecules in sufficient quantity for subsequent radiocarbon analysis. This cutting-edge technique reveals the age of source-specific molecules in environmental samples and can be used as a powerful tool to study carbon cycle processes. It can reveal the carbon source taken up by different life forms and can be used to quantify exchange processes between carbon reservoirs, for example from land into the ocean. Furthermore, this technique can provide age constraints for paleoclimate records when other fossils are lacking. The instrument will support the NSERC-funded research programs of the applicants from the Institut des sciences de la mer (ISMER) at Université du Québec à Rimouski (UQAR) and McGill University. These research programs fall under three distinct frameworks of major concern in the broader biogeosciences community as well as the public and policy makers: 1) Arctic climate and permafrost dynamics, 2) microbial carbon cycling, carbon sequestration, and feedback mechanisms, and 3) anthropogenic stressors/contaminants. These research programs will provide important information on the cause and effects of natural and anthropogenic forcing on global ecosystem functions and climate change. The instrument will be the only one established at a university in Québec and more than 20 HQP will be trained on the instrument within the next 5 years, which fully exploits instrument capacity. HQP will be trained to operate the instrument as well as ancillary instruments autonomously and, thus, obtain valuable and unique skills that are marketable inside and outside of academia. The instrument will advance the applicants' research programs, enable state-of-the-art training for HQP, and facilitate novel collaborative projects and research innovation in Québec and across Canada, both in the public and private sectors.