Advanced Instrumentation Development and Numerical Modeling

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Instrumentation Development & Numerical Modeling

Aquatic ecosystem scientists have developed or modified numerous instruments and models in their quest to understand how aquatic ecosystems function. Models range from paleoclimate models based on diatom response to salinity changes in closed-basin lakes, to a suite of optical models which predict underwater exposure to solar ultraviolet radiation. Instrumentation development includes the portable in situ pore pressure instrument (PISPPI), which determines water exchange across the sediment boundary, remotely operated underwater video camera for investigations of zooplankton distribution and abundance, and solar powered "weather stations" which monitor UV radiation and lake parameters such as water temperature and depth.

Other field facilities include underwater profiling instrumentation for UV-B and longer wavelength radiation, an optical plankton counter, a remotely-operated underwater vehicle with high resolution video imaging, boats and trailers, and an array of standard limnological sampling equipment. Field equipment for lake sediment and groundwater studies include Mackereth and other modified-piston coring devices, a Geotek multisensor core logger, a multichannel seismograph, acoustic logger, hydrophones for doing surficial seismographic work, and aquatic sediment parameters.

Laboratory facilities include a stable isotope mass spectrometer, state-of-the-art equipment for aqueous chemistry analysis, HPLC, GC, TOC analyzer, LSC, ICP-AES, and ion chromatography, a 2 axis CTF superconducting magnetometer, GSD-5 tumbling AF demagnetizer, and an Elzone electronic particle size analyzer. Both electronics and machine shops staffed by EES technicians provide support for instrument development.

In addition to these departmental facilities, related science and engineering departments on campus have a variety of equipment for doing physical limnology and hydrology, molecular biology, transmission and scanning electron microscopy, XPS, NMR, and surface, colloid, and polymer analysis.