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Instrumentation
A number of analytical instruments are housed within the Academic-Stack
Buildings. Some are located in common service areas;
others are located within specific faculty research labs. Common-area instrumentation
includes floor centrifuges, autoclaves, a muffle furnace, plant and
soil sample drying ovens, a grinding lab with Wiley, impact, and
roller mills, walk-in coolers, a walk-in 25-degree incubator, a
hydro-pneumatic root elutriator, and several controlled-environment
chambers.
Instruments not in common areas remain available to KBS researchers on a
negotiated basis as a matter of policy and collegiality. If you have need of a sponsored
instrument (one that is not in a common use area), contact the
responsible faculty member. Almost always arrangements can be
made for providing access to an instrument or analysis, although
limitations related to sample backlogs, instrument complexity, and
operating costs may sometimes restrict access to specific instruments
at some times.
The
following equipment is available; please contact Nina Consolatti (consolat@kbs.msu.edu) to learn who to
contact for access to specific instruments.:
- Several short- and long- pathlength
spectrophotometers, most often used for colorimetric analyses of
nutrients in surface waters and soil solutions;
- Several gas chromatographs equipped
with TCD, FID, and ECD detectors, used for analyses of CO2,
CH4, N2, and N2O in studies of
dissolved gases, gas emissions, and microbial processes;
- Several infrared gas absorption (IRGA)
analyzers for measurement of CO2, used for quantifying in
situ gas fluxes and for soil and microbial incubations;
- A liquid scintillation counter, used
for radioisotope assays;
- Multisensor sondes to measure
dissolved O2, pH, conductance, and temperature in field
measurements of aquatic habitats;
- A photoacoustic trace gas analyzer,
used for real-time field measurements of N2O, CO2,
and CH4 fluxes;
- A high-vacuum line and gas
preparation bench for manipulation and purification of gas samples;
- A Costech Model 4010 Elemental
Combustion analyzer for the analysis of total carbon and nitrogen in biological
samples;
- An Alpkem/OI Analytical Flow
Solution IV analyzer (Model 3550) to measure concentratons of nitrate and ammonium in soil
extracts;
- A Dionex Model ICS-1000 Ion
Chromatograph (IC), for analyzing ions in water samples;
- A Shimadzu Model TOC-V total carbon
analyzer for measuring dissolved
carbon in aqueous samples;
- Two sub-meter Trimble GPS units for
field use, including base station support;
- Standard lab equipment such as
microscopes, balances, pH meters, and data loggers.
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