QRC members lead and participate in a wide range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary research projects from the study of past earth climates and glaciations to shifts in the geographic distributions and evolution of vegetation and faunal communities, to the evolution and dispersals of the genus Homo and the increasing scales of human modification of earth environments through the Holocene. QRC provides a venue for meeting and collaborating with scholars across Quaternary disciplines. We are also fortunate to be able to provide seed funding and small grants for member research projects. We are especially happy to support grad student and junior scholar research activities, much of which leads to larger, external funding from agencies like the National Science Foundation.
A Trace Element Laboratory for Environmental Science
Abstract: Instrumentation for a state of the art mass spectrometry facility at the University of Washington for the analysis of trace elements in natural materials: to track animal migration, uncover the geological and biological processes that shape our planet, reconstruct past climate, and trace contaminants in the environment.
Acquisition of compound-specific isotope ratio mass spectrometry capabilities in support of environmental science research
Abstract: These funds will contribute to the acquisition of instrumentation to perform stable isotope analyses of individual chemical compounds from a wide variety of environmental samples. Compound-specific isotope analysis (CSIA) of carbon and nitrogen is the state-of-the-art across multiple disciplines within environmental science including ecology, biogeochemistry, oceanography, and global change. These capabilities are not currently available to environmental science researchers at the University of Washington (UW). Project PIs are Gordon Holtgrieve (SAFS), Julian Sachs (Ocean) and Paul Quay (Ocean). Project participants span six Schools and Departments within two Colleges (College of the Environment or College of Engineering), providing the critical mass, interest, and grant activity to establish environmentally related CSIA analyses on the UW campus. Adding CSIA to the existing suite of isotope measurement techniques and expertise at the UW will advance existing research programs and create new avenues for environmental research.
Report: Read the report here; published paper here; fact sheet here.
Abstract: These funds will contribute to the acquisition of instrumentation to perform stable isotope analyses of individual chemical compounds from a wide variety of environmental samples. Compound-specific isotope analysis (CSIA) of carbon and nitrogen is the state-of-the-art across multiple disciplines within environmental science including ecology, biogeochemistry, oceanography, and global change. These capabilities are not currently available to environmental science researchers at the University of Washington (UW). Project PIs are Gordon Holtgrieve (SAFS), Julian Sachs (Ocean) and Paul Quay (Ocean). Project participants span six Schools and Departments within two Colleges (College of the Environment or College of Engineering), providing the critical mass, interest, and grant activity to establish environmentally related CSIA analyses on the UW campus. Adding CSIA to the existing suite of isotope measurement techniques and expertise at the UW will advance existing research programs and create new avenues for environmental research. 