MRI-ACQUISITION OF A SHARED MULTI-COLLECTOR INDUCTIVELY COUPLED MASS SPECTROMETER (MC-ICP-MS) TO BENEFIT TEACHING, FEDERAL, STATE, AND NATIONAL RESEARCH NEEDS IN THE ARCTIC

An award is made to the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) to establish the first multi-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (MC-ICP-MS) facility in Alaska. This new instrument will be part of the Alaska Isotope Facility (AIF) and will provide support to recruit a new full-time, expert research faculty member at UAF, trained in using MC-ICP-MS. These new resources will be available to train students and researchers from across the UAF campus, as well as other academic institutions both in and outside of Alaska. The facility will serve researchers from state and federal agencies, including those from the U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Army Corp of Engineers and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. AIF, the University of Alaska Museum of the North and the Center of Alaska Native Health Research, will provide high quality education and outreach opportunities involving the public, K-12 students, rural high school teachers, undergraduate and graduate students. The new facility will allow chemical analyses of samples, supporting research projects to better understand the migration of salmon and other commercially important fish species, to reveal the migration patterns of ancient and modern animals in the Arctic and to advance our ability to identify sources of heavy metal contamination to the subsistence food web in Alaska, which is critical to the culture and health of Alaska Native people. <br/><br/>This new research facility will provide cutting-edge research techniques to those studying environmental changes in the Arctic and will enhance existing federal investments in the Arctic. Research areas to be immediately enabled include research into migration patterns of economically and culturally important animals in both Arctic aquatic and terrestrial realms, such as salmon, bison and caribou, in response to environmental changes. This new instrument will also support hydrologic studies in the Arctic, which in turn are linked to understanding permafrost dynamics and the release of important greenhouse gases, such and methane and carbon dioxide, to the atmosphere. In the marine realm, the new instrumentation will enable research to study elements that are biologically necessary and can limit or co-limit productivity in parts of the ocean and others that are toxic and can negatively affect higher trophic levels when biomagnified through food webs, such as mercury. This area has particular cultural relevance for Alaska Native communities that rely on subsistence resources.