Carbon Dioxide Isotope Analyzers
Stable isotopes act as tracers for studying flows and fluxes of material through ecosystems and the atmosphere. In practice, scientists measure the stable carbon isotope content of air, plants and soil to quantify many phenomena including the recycling of carbon dioxide within forests, water use efficiency, partitioning ecosystem carbon exchange into its components, gross primary productivity and ecosystem respiration, and to identify and quantify the distribution and contributions of plant species to global productivity. In addition, stable isotopes of carbon may be used to determine the effectiveness of carbon sequestration strategies. For these studies, investigators require fast, accurate measurements over a wide range of carbon dioxide concentrations.
