Grant: Research Tools and Instruments

The inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-MS) has become the gold standard to confidently quantify trace levels of inorganic contaminants like cadmium, nickel, arsenic, and lead in the environment. Here, we request an ICP-MS system suitable for accurately determining and quantifying trace-level contaminants in heterogeneous environmental matrices like soil, water, and biota in ecosystems affected by human disturbance and climate-induced perturbations. With an ICP-MS, we hope to advance our understanding of how disturbances like forest fires, permafrost thaw, agricultural activities, and urban development impact the transport and concentration of inorganic contaminants in disturbed ecosystems. Brock University has no instruments for trace, elemental analyses of inorganic contaminants. This instrument will allow our interdisciplinary team to identify critical environmental factors related to metal transport and facilitate the training of highly qualified personnel on an ICP-MS for environmental analyses. The advances in fundamental research that can be made with the requested ICP-MS system are essential to understand better how contaminant cycling will be impacted in Canada's rapidly changing ecosystems, with benefits to Indigenous communities in Canada's north. Our current research programs provide advanced landscape topography, hydrological information, and cutting-edge molecular-level information on organic matter. In conjunction with the requested ICP-MS, we hope to contribute unique perspectives by linking changing biogeochemical factors that impact the concentration, transport, and fate of inorganic contaminants in heavily disturbed ecosystems.