UI Natural Resources Research Laboratory Probes Climate, Environment Changes
Monday, August 1 2005
Aug. 1, 2005 MOSCOW, Idaho - The Stable Isotopes Research Laboratory in the University of Idaho College of Natural Resources is a small facility that may help answer some of the world’s biggest questions regarding global change. John Marshall, professor of forest resources, directs the facility, and lab manager Bob Brander conducts isotopic analysis of water, plant and animal samples, including a 3,300-foot ice core that will taken from the Pamir Mountains in central Asia. (See related story.) Marshall explains that naturally occurring isotopes within a sample leave a signature or “fingerprint” that tells scientists important information about its origins. “Monsoons leave a signal in the ice,” Marshall said. “We will be able to tell if past monsoons were weaker or stronger, which will improve our ability to predict the effects of global climate change.” Scientists also may use isotopic analysis as an indicator of threats to natural resources and endangered species, like salmon. Because salmon in the ocean have a different isotopic fingerprint than do freshwater fish, researchers can tell whether even extinct streams once had an anadromous salmon run. In addition, stable isotope analyses are increasingly used to estimate water-use efficiency in forest ecosystems and for other biogeochemical systems research. Though the UI lab is perhaps best known for addressing forestry issues, such as how tree species compete for water and nutrients, its capability for ground water studies is beneficial worldwide. Marshall said researchers from Colombia have submitted ground water samples to identify sources of nitrate in drinking water there. Locally, scientists have been able to figure out water flow to reservoirs from isotopic water analysis conducted in ground water studies. In one instance, Moscow water officials have determined that ground water in the Palouse is not replenishing the Grande Ronde aquifer but rather runs off or is consumed by plants in the area. Similar work now is being conducted in collaboration with hydrologists at the Mica Creek Experimental Watershed, northeast of Clarkia. From this and other water-related research carried out in the Stable Isotopes Lab, managers are increasingly able to make informed decisions about water policy. The lab’s applications also include nutritional food-web studies. “People say you are what you eat; in terms of stable isotopes, it’s true,” Marshall said. For example, isotopic analysis of corn shows it has a different isotopic fingerprint than other grains. People and animals that consume corn carbon, even if it has first been converted to beef carbon, have different isotopic levels than people who don’t, which may influence management decisions of dieticians and cattle feedlot operators. The lab’s capabilities have increased after the purchase of high-tech instruments including two isotope-ratio mass spectrometers, which are used in tandem with several sample introduction systems. The availability of these advanced "on-line" technologies greatly shortens analysis time and costs which formerly were done manually. “When people hear ‘isotope,’ they immediately think of radioactive isotopes,” Marshall said, “but the beauty here is that the kind of isotopes we work with in this facility are harmless. They’re not radioactive. And what we’re measuring is the variation that occurs naturally.” Geologists have used stable isotope techniques to fingerprint rocks for decades. Ecologists only began to use them in the ‘90s. The Idaho lab is one of only two operating in natural resource colleges in the U.S. The lab offers its services to the public and will analyze samples for a standard cost. More information about the Idaho Stable Isotopes Research Laboratory is available at: www.cnrhome.uidaho.edu/isil. Contacts: John Marshall, Forest Resources, UI College of Natural Resources, (208) 885-6695, jdm@uidaho.edu, or Sue McMurray, CNR Communications, (208) 885-6673, suem@uidaho.edu. -30- sm/8-30-05/CNR
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