Equipment in the EcologyBGC Lab is shared amongst multiple users for temporary (two months or less) use. Equipment in the lab and portable equipment are available for use. All users are required to follow labeling, scheduling and clean up requirements. Please contact Jessica Kern for access into the laboratory. Users who do not follow these policies will be striped of EcologyBGC use authorization.
Check out our Field Kit by clicking below!
Analytical balance (qty: 2)
Centrifuge
Drying Oven (qty: 2) (up to 300°)
Elutriation system
FluorCam imaging system*
Freeze dry system and vacuum pump
Mini Beadbeater-96
-20° Freezer
Fume hood
Fume hood with desiccator cabinet
Hard tissue grinder/homogenizer
Muffle furnace (up to 1000°)
Orbital/Reciprocating shaker
Refrigerator
Scale (up to 16 kg)
Solvent storage cabinet
Stereomicroscope with fiber optic light
Water Bath
Work bench (qty: 6)
*Closed FluorCam FC 800-C represents a highly innovative, robust and user-friendly system for combined multispectral and kinetic fluorescence imaging. It consists of a CCD camera, four LED panels and, optionally, of a filter wheel equipped with up to 8 different emission filters. This instrument is suitable for imaging of small plants, detached leaves, mosses, lichens, plated algal colonies or algal suspensions but is suitable for bigger pots too. It can be utilized for detection of abiotic and biotic stress on plants, to measure the stomatal patchiness and for screening of mutants.
FluorPen is a portable, battery-powered fluorometer that enables quick and precise measurement of chlorophyll fluorescence parameters in the laboratory, greenhouse, or in the field. It can be effectively used for studying photosynthetic activity, stress detection and for teaching basic photosynthesis features on campus. Moreover, since the portability of this instrument, it will be possible to use multiple Pens in order to collect a large number of data at the same time in the field.
The Leafview 1 oxygraph (Hansatech) is an entry level system for studies of photosynthesis and respiration from gas-phase, solid-state samples under actinic illumination. The system is ideally suited to teaching environments for under & post-grad plant biology studies of the photosynthetic processes but is equally at home in research facilities where demands on equipment performance are high. Changes in oxygen content of the sealed sample chamber are determined by the integral oxygen electrode mounted in the base of the chamber.
The FLIR420 is a professional grade thermal camera used in industry to check for overheating components in circuit boards, leaks in insulated buildings etc. We use it to measure the extent but in particular the timing of transpiration. As leaves transpire they cool. One of the hypotheses I am testing in my PhD is that genotypes with differences in the membranes of their roots take up water at different rates after drought. The differences are likely to be subtle but the thermal camera will allow us to monitor transpiration in a large number of plants simultaneously.
The SC-1 porometer (Decagon) using a steady-state technology makes getting accurate stomatal conductance measurements affordable and practical for everyday research. It does not have moving parts but leaves the environment alone, and instead determines stomatal conductance by measuring the actual vapor flux from the leaf through the stomates and out to the environment. This modern instrument weighs about half a pound (300 g) and it is ideal for fieldwork. The SC-1 can have a large variety of applications as plant water use and water balance, water stress measurements, uptake of herbicides or research on stomatal functions.
The LI-6400XT (LICOR) is a portable and flexible photosynthesis system. This system is the choice of scientists around the world for its proven technology that places the infrared gas analyzers in the sensor head, to provide a rapid response and eliminate time delays. The instrument allows laboratory-quality measurements in a field-portable system. It can be used in environments ranging from the moist tropics to the dry arctic and the open system design allows complete control over the environmental variables of interest. LI-6400XT permits complete measures of fluorescence and gas exchange simultaneously over the same leaf area with a precision of ± 0.09% at 350 ppm CO2. A variety of leaf chambers and light sources, a leaf chamber fluorometer, and soil CO2 flux chamber that are interchangeable with the same sensor head, make the LI-6400 XT ideal for a variety of applications from broad leaf gas exchange to insect respiration.
FieldSpec 4 StandardResolution Spectroradiometer (Analytical Spectral Devices) instrument offers researchers the ability to measure spectral reflectance from the visible to the mid-infrared (350-2500 nm) with bandwidth from 3-10 nm depending on wavelength. The ruggedized instrument is field-ready, and includes a backpack and laptop platform. A laptop that controls the instrument is included, with software, along with a calibrated reflectance panel and other accessories (e.g., a plant probe). For more information on this instrument, click here.
Ecology and Biogeochemistry
UW Biodiversity Institute
Berry Center Room 115
1000 E. University Ave.
Laramie, WY 82071
Email: ecobgc@uwyo.edu
Jessica Kern, Lab Manager
Email: jessj@uwyo.edu
