The Stable Isotope Ratio Facility for Environmental Research (SIRFER) is a research and recharge facility within the Biology Department at the University of Utah. This isotope ratio mass spectrometer facility serves research and teaching needs for stable isotope ratio analyses within the Biology Department and other departments on campus. The focus of SIRFER is on studies in which stable isotope analyses are a key element for interpreting information on environmental reconstruction, ecosystem processes, plant-animal interactions, and sourcing or geo-location determination. Additionally, SIRFER has provided stable isotope analyses for more than 200 laboratories at different universities and research institutions across the United States and around the world in the past ten years and will continue to provide such services in the future.
Equipment: The facility consists of seven stable isotope ratio mass spectrometers from Finnigan MAT (MAT 252, delta S, delta Plus). These instruments have the capacity for both dual-inlet and continuous flow analyses. They are equipped with cold fingers for small sampling trapping, front-end CHON systems for on-line sample combustion and clean up, a GC interface, a PreCon interface to trap trace gases from small quantities of air before introduction to the GC/IRMS interface, both laser-ablation and carbonate devices for analyzing teeth, bones and carbonate rock materials, and multi-port sampling for unattended sampling. In addition, SIRFER instrumentation includes associated peripheral equipment, such as HPLC, GC/MS, GC, vacuum extraction lines, preparation lines, elemental analyzers, microbalances, and furnaces needed to conduct analyses.
Location: SIRFER is located at 510 Aline Skaggs Biology Building.
Availability: Individuals can arrange to come to SIRFER to conduct their own analyses. Individuals can also arrange to have their samples sent to SIRFER for stable isotope analyses. Please contact Craig Cook for these details.
Why are stable isotopes of interest?

Virtually all elements of biological, medical, and geological interest exist in more than one stable isotopic form. For instance, hydrogen exists as 1H, which is most common, and 2H (deuterium). Stable isotopes are of interest because of their potential as non-radioactive tracers in reactions (at enriched levels) and because fractionation processes by biological and physical processes lead to differences in the isotopic composition of substances of biological interest (at natural abundance levels) that provide information on those processes. Analyses of stable isotopes tells us about such diverse topics as past climates in geology, metabolic rates and water-use efficiency in biology, and diet reconstruction in anthropology.