Local, State and National Associations, Centers and Working Groups
Biogeochemistry Laboratory
The
laboratory is in the Department of Environmental and Forest Biology (Illick Hall,
rooms 211-214 and room 219) and supports research on the biogeochemistry of a
variety of systems, but particular attention is focused on forests and surface
waters. The laboratory has the potential to perform a wide range of soil,
vegetation and water chemistry analyses commonly associated with elemental
cycling research. Equipment includes chemical instrumentation for quantifying
different analyte concentrations, drying ovens, incubators, balances, a muffle
furnace, a filtering apparatus, vacuum hoods, sampling devices, a water
purification system, PC's and printers.
A Dionex DX-120 Ion Chromatographic (IC) is available for quantification of
anions in water or soil samples. The IC is computer-controlled using Dionex's
PeakNet software. Additionally, the IC has the potential to be fitted with a
cation column in order to measure cation concentrations. However, cation
concentrations are presently measured using a Perkin-Elmer DIV 3300 inductively
coupled plasma atomic emission spectrophotometer, located in the Jahn Chemistry
Building, maintained by the Analytical and Technical Services at SUNY - ESF. A
Bran+Luebbe Autoanalyzer 3 is dedicated to ammonium (indophenol blue method) and
total nitrogen (persulfate digestion method) analyses. This instrument is also
computer-controlled. It has the potential to perform total phosphorus and many
other chemical methods with the use of two multitest manifolds. Dissolved
organic carbon is measured using a Tekmar Phoenix 8000 Carbon Analyzer, which
can also quantify dissolved inorganic carbon and total carbon. This instrument
is also computer-controlled. Other laboratory instruments include: a Hewlett
Packard 5890 Series II Gas Chromatograph for doing trace gas analyses, a Corning
Ion Analyzer 250 (pH) and a Virtis Advantage freeze drier
Solid samples (soil and vegetation), excluding liquid extractions, may be
analyzed for total percent sulfur content, performed on the LECO Sulfur
Determinator. Total percent carbon, hydrogen’ nitrogen and sulfur for solid
samples can be measured using the Thermo Electron Corporation, EA1112 elemental
analyzer. Ammonium and nitrate are extracted from solid samples with potassium
chloride, and then analyzed using the Bran+Luebbe Autoanalyzer 3. Phosphate
extractable sulfate is quantified using the Dionex DX-120 Ion Chromatograph.
Total Alkalinity is measured by acid titration.
Patrick J. McHale (Instructional Support Specialist) is the laboratory
manager, responsible for equipment operation and maintenance, laboratory safety
and supervision of laboratory personnel. Laboratory staff also include: David
Lyons (Research Support Specialist) and Joyce Green (Research Support
Specialist).
The laboratory is supervised by Myron J. Mitchell (Professor and Director of
Council on Hydrologic Systems Science). For further information on the
laboratory and interest in collaboration with biogeochemical research, contact
Patrick J. McHale at (315) 470-6738 or
Myron J. Mitchell at (315) 470-6765.
Research Equipment for Aquatic and Marine Chemistry
Equipment
available through the
Chemistry
department can be used to measure virtually any
chemical constituent in aquatic and marine systems, including major ions,
nutrients, trace inorganic elements or compounds and trace organic compounds.
Equipment for standard water quality measures includes automated colorimetric
analyzers, flame atomic absorption spectrometers, and inductively-coupled plasma
emission spectrometer, ion chromatographs, selective ion electrode meters, pH
meters, dissolved oxygen meters and conductivity meters. Equipment for more
specialized analyses includes a 300 and a 600 MHz NMR, electron microscopes, and
atomic force microscope, FTIR spectrometers, a graphite furnace atomic
absorption spectrometer, total organic carbon analyzers, a
carbon-hydrogen-nitrogen analyzer and anodic stripping voltameters. Numerous
gas chromatographs are available, most with high-resolution capillary column
capability. Detector options include flame ionization, electron capture, flame
photometric, photoionization and thermal conductivity. Two gas
chromatograph-mass spectrometer systems are also available. Numerous liquid
chromatographs are also available, with detector options that include variable
wavelength, diode array, florescence, conductivity, low-angle laser light
scattering, scintillation, refractive index and mass selective (LCMS)
detection.
Most of the equipment mentioned above is used in the laboratory; however,
specialized field equipment is also available. This includes the portable
meters for oxygen, conductivity, temperature, pH and ion-selective electrodes.
In addition, faculty and students frequently operate specialized, field-capable
systems for on-site and/or real-time analyses. Such systems are usually
custom-constructed for purposes such as tracing sources of organic chemical
contaminants, field detection of algal productivity and algal toxins, or
monitoring sunlight-driven production of hydrogen peroxide.
Chemistry faculty maintain an environmental optics facility for studies in
the ultraviolet, visible and near infrared portions of the solar spectrum. This
facility includes submersible, portable and laboratory radiometers with narrow
bandpass filters and a submersible spectroradiometer capable of automated
operation across the ultraviolet and visible spectrum. Light sources include a
NIST-traceable system for calibration of radiometers, mercury and argon lamps
for irradiation studies and a highly-intensity pulsed dye laser for studies of
fast reactions.
Chemistry faculty also maintain facilities for examining both marine and
freshwater phytoplankton in the laboratory and the field. Included in those
facilities are both portable (field) and laboratory based fluorometers dedicated
to measuring in vivo chlorophyll concentrations in near real time, a number of
autonomous sensors suitable for buoy deployment, and a dedicated HPLC-PDA
instrument for determining chlorophyll and carotenoid signatures. Both phase
contrast and epifluorescence microscopy is readily available. The Department
has state-of-the-art culture and transfer facilities for growing up to 600L
cultures of marine or freshwater algae.
All Chemistry equipment is housed in the Edwin C. Jahn Laboratory. This
building was opened in 1997 and contains laboratories designed for environmental
chemistry studies. It also contains specialized support facilities that include
cold rooms, constant temperature rooms, a class 100 clean room, incubators for
culturing algae, a nuclear chemistry laboratory, a computational chemistry
laboratory and a rooftop platform for outdoor exposure studies.