The
YIBS
Earth System Center for Stable Isotope Studies was established with
the completion of the stable isotope facility in Class of 1954
Environmental Science Center (ESC). The Center is devoted to the
study of the environment using the latest technology and ideas in light
stable isotope research, and serves as a meeting point for both Yale
and external scientists to exchange ideas and develop new approaches to
the study of the environment.
Given that
the stable isotopes of oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, sulfur, and nitrogen
all show large variations depending on climatic and local conditions,
it has become clear that essentially all aspects of the environment can
be studied using light stable isotopes. It is also very clear
that every living thing on this planet is to a large extent “what
it
eats, drinks and breaths.” The isotopic compositions of animals
and
plants in any environment reflect the environment in which they live,
and with the isotopic record carried by some fossils we can document
environmental change. Living flora and fauna carry isotopic
information on animal migration, metabolic pathways and environmental
influences.
Light
stable isotopes can also be used to study the long-term cycles that
control the Earth’s climate on the long time scale. For
instance
isotopic studies can be used to help constrain the cycling of CO2
within the Earth’s interior, and to put constraints on the flux
of
volatiles through the Earth’s crust.
Users of
the stable isotope facility
have and are doing a myriad of different projects, with some relevent
references found on our "Citation"
page. Members of the Geology and Geophysics department have used
stable isotopes to study the dynamics of cloud
formation, and the possible effects that clouds will have on Global
Warming. Users have used isotopes in corals to
establish changes in recent ocean circulation, and have used
isotopes in Nautilus septa to establish the early life history of these
animals. Others here have used isotope studies to constrain the
amount of
volatiles moving through and interacting with the Earth’s crust. Oxygen isotopes on phosphates are being
used as environmental indicators, and may now allow us to
recognize ancient life in
ancient rocks and possibly Mars. Isotopes on individual
biomarkers, isolated from sea cores, are being examined to follow
past climatic events. The Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
department use the facility to do food web studies on local rivers to
Bahama's estuaries, among other studies. The School of Forestry
use isotopes to study water stress on plants from Indonesia to Hawaii
to
Panama to mainland US. They are also studying carbon cycling.
We have collaborated with the Anthropology department on their
analysis of stable isotopic studies on grains from dig sites in the
Middle East. Stable isotope studies can tell
us when and where irrigation became important, and when and where
drought conditions have been predominant. We are collaborating
with Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry department to follow protein
folding using a 13C
label as a marker of accessible sites. Users from the Chemistry department are
using stable isotopes to follow catalyzed reactions. We also work
with members of the Yale Medical School as well as with outside
laboratories.
Members:
The Center
also includes the expertise of a number of people who make up the
personnel of the center. The idea was to bring together a group
of scientists, with stable isotope expertise, that represent a broad
spectrum of environmental science disciplines. The group
includes:
Danny
Rye,
Mark
Pagani,
Ruth
Blake,
David Post,
Gerard Olack, Gaboury
Benoit,
Peter Raymond and
Karl Turekian.
This group
gives us representation from geochemistry, bio-geochemistry,
paleo-ecology, ecology, micro biology, and forestry. We also will
have close ties to anthropology, and engineering.
It is our
desire to make the center a hot bed of research that not only will
interact with the other inhabitants of ESC, but also with the rest of
the Yale community. We hope also to have a steady flux of
visitors to the laboratory. These visitors will come both for the
state of the art equipment, and for intellectual interchange.
Staff:
The Center has one full time PhD level
staff
member. Dr.
Gerard Olack provides day-to-day management of the Center,
assists users and instructors, and works with others from both within
and from outside of Yale who wish to use the facility. He also
has his own projects within the center.
History:
ESCSIS
grew out of Dr. Danny Rye's Stable Isotope Laboratory in the Department of
Geology and
Geophysics at
Yale University. New faculty members, new instruments, and
increased
interest from other departments led to the formation of this facility
under the
auspices of the Yale Institute of Biospheric Studies. The
facility
started
in February of 2002 with Dr. Danny Rye's ThermoFinnigan MAT
251
being
moved into our current location, the (then) new Environmental
Sciences
Center, Class of 1954 building. With the participation of board
members, Dr. Danny Rye, Dr. Karl
Turekian, Dr. Ruth Blake and Dr.
Mark
Pagani, Dept. of Geology
and
Geophysics, Dr. David
Post, Dept.
of
Ecology
and Evolutionary Biology, and
Dr. Gaboury Benoit and Dr. Peter
Raymond, School
of Forestry and Environmental Studies,
their departments, YIBS and
Yale
University, new instruments
and peripherals began arriving.
We
now have a series of ThermoFinnigan's Stable Isotope Ratio mass
spectrometers:
a Mat 253, a DeltaPlus
XP and a DeltaPlus
Advantage. The
peripherals
include ThermoFinnigan's GC and GCC, H-device, TC/EA and ConfloIII,
GasBench,
and a Costech ECS4010 elemental analyzer with a ConfloIII.
These
allow us
to look at a number of isotopic systems, 13C
and 15N
from plant and
animal
tissue , 18O
on phosphates and sulfates, and compound
specific work
with 13C
and DH. As the participating labs and projects grow and
develop,
more
protocols and procedures are being developed and implemented.
This
center is set up as a facility. Users are expected to prepare
and, after
training, run their own samples. We will gladly help people
design their
projects, and work with them in the development and implementation of
new
protocols. The center also has other equipment and set-ups
that
can be
used in sample preparation, e.g. micro-balance , dental drill and
vacuum
lines. Currently the board members' laboratories and their
collaborators
are the major users of this facility. However, the center is
open
to all
members of the Yale Community and the stable isotope community at
large.
Special
thanks to everyone who helped us move to our new location and setup our
instruments. The movers and the shakers (BKM--luckily, very
little was shaken up), the coordinators(Yale/BKM/Thermo/Dimeo/etc.),
the guy who manually operated the elevator doors in KGL, Finnigan folk
(sounds better than Thermo-filliates), ESC building managers (Dimeo),
Yale managers, and, of course, the Class of 1954 for building the
building. Many individuals were involved in this project, and though we
can't list them all, we do like to thank them all.
We'd also
like to thank those who directly helped with establishing and keeping
projects and instruments running through the transition.
Roger Husted from Thermo moved the 251 and worked through
the ongoing construction to get it back up and running. Jim
Burdett from Thermo who tolerated us for two installs, the 253 and XP,
along with all the new peripherals. And Burt Wolff and
Melinda Foland were here from Thermo for the Advantage install and the
update to the 253 respectively. Brett
Tipple from Mark
Pagani's
lab was
the key person in getting the GC/GCC working, and Nikolai
Pedentchouk
helped implement GC hydrogen runs. Jim
Greenwood
along with Alexandr Surkov and Yuhong
Laing, all from Ruth
Blake's lab, were instrumental
in getting the TC/EA running.
Gaku Takimoto, working here with David Post, spent a
lot of
time helping us with the EA. Ephraim
Taylor,
a Dartmouth
undergrad working summers in Danny
Rye's lab, has been instrumental
in
keeping most everything running--and was actually able to get real
science done too. He's currently in graduate school and the Jackson School of Geosciences, University of Texas, Austin, working with Dr. Sharon Mosher. Bob Rye's lab at the USGS
in Denver,
especially Craig
Johnson and Cynthia Kester (now at Harvard), helped get started with the new stuff, as
did Kate
Freeman's lab at Penn State,
especially Dennis
Walizer.
Albert
Coleman, who graduated out of Ruth
Blake's lab before
our move, provided us with a lot of insight on TC/EA work.
Short courses, at SIRFER (Jim Ehleringer,
University of Utah) and for ISL at USGS Reston Stable Isotope
Laboratory (Isodat 2.0 Scripting language, Tyler Coplen from USGS
and Holger Jeglinski from Thermo amongst others), and specialized
standards for the GC work, Kate
Freeman's laboratory and commercially from Arndt Schimmelmann's
laboratory at Indiana University, were very helpful to facility
members. And we would also like to thank previous laboratory
managers,
especially John
Kingston, now at Emory, who kept
the 251 and the
Apple][e alive and kicking.
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