The Microbial Biogeochemistry Lab is an analytical chemistry laboratory with equipment for microbial culturing and compound-specific analyses, including a fume hood, large and small incubators, centrifuges, muffle furnace, pH meter, UV-Vis spectrophotometer, bead beater, and a high purity water system.

Our lab houses UM’s only gas chromatography-isotope ratio mass spectrometer (GC-IRMS), an instrument used to analyze the carbon, nitrogen, or hydrogen isotope compositions of individual small molecules like amino acids, alcohols, and fatty acids. Some of these molecules are preserved long-term in the sediment record. Measuring their stable isotope ratios (usually 15N or 13C) allows us to track the flow of carbon and nitrogen through ecosystems, and study nitrogen cycling carried out by specific organisms, such as toxic and non-toxic algae. The IRMS also includes an elemental analyzer (EA) used for isotope analysis of bulk materials like sediment, and an ISQ7000 single quadrupole mass spectrometer for identifying compounds via gas chromatography.

We also have an HPLC (high performance liquid chromatography) with DAD (diode array detection) for identifying and purifying larger biomarker compounds, such as chlorophyll, which cannot be easily analyzed via gas chromatography.