| NSF Org: |
EAR Division Of Earth Sciences |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | April 21, 2015 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | July 29, 2019 |
| Award Number: | 1462297 |
| Award Instrument: | Continuing Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Russell Kelz
EAR Division Of Earth Sciences GEO Directorate for Geosciences |
| Start Date: | May 1, 2015 |
| End Date: | April 30, 2021 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $1,219,346.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $1,434,045.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
FY 2016 = $603,942.00 FY 2018 = $315,404.00 FY 2019 = $214,699.00 |
| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
2221 UNIVERSITY AVE SE STE 100 MINNEAPOLIS MN US 55414-3074 (612)624-5599 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
310 Pillsbury Drive, SE Minneapolis MN US 55455-0231 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): |
Instrumentation & Facilities, DEEP EARTH PROCESSES SECTION |
| Primary Program Source: |
01001617DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01001819DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01001920DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT |
| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.050 |
ABSTRACT
1462297
Ito
This collaborative grant between the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities and Duluth (EAR-1462347) campuses supports renewed partial funding of operations and laboratory improvements at LacCore, a national multi-user lake sediment core archival and analysis facility. LacCore was previously supported under EAR- 0949962 and EAR- 0949285. The LacCore Facility supports the limnological community for studies that contribute to our understanding of past climates, ecological systems, and biogeochemical dynamics on the continents though detailed sedimentological analysis and archival services for lacustrine cores. LacCore operates open laboratories to allow community access to specialized field and laboratory equipment and staff expertise for Initial Core Description (ICD) methods including: core splitting; non-destructive multi-sensor core logging; XRF core scanning; SEM imaging; palynological preparation; grain size analysis; carbon coulometry; phase identification via x-ray diffraction; biogenic silica analysis; preparation of samples for subsequent stable isotopic analysis; digital core photography, and optical petrography/smear slide analysis. LacCore also provides refrigerated and frozen core storage and archival services and field coring equipment and curatorial materials (D-tubes) support for lake coring expeditions. LacCore staff are responsible for curation of lake core ICD metadata and the routine transmission of all data to NOAA?s National Geophysical Data Center, development of software for core image analysis and correlation, and education and outreach activities including advising Native American tribe resource managers in the state of Minnesota, supporting student travel grants to expose students to standard protocols for core description and analysis, and developing social media and smart phone applications in support of geoscience education and public awareness. With the selection of the University of Minnesota as the new Continental Scientific Drilling Coordination Office (CSDCO; EAR- 1338322), replacing a role that used to be managed by DOSECC, LacCore PIs will now engage in large drilling project planning and execution.
The LacCore Facility will continue as a training ground for hundreds of researchers, particularly graduate students, in coring and core analysis techniques. LacCore staff are engaged in education and outreach including an ongoing collaborative project aimed at study of the paleoenvironments of wild rice lakes in northern Minnesota with tribal college students and teachers from the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College. LacCore staff actively engage in outreach activities to support the engagement of underrepresented students in the geosciences. LacCore data are accessible via web-based open data archives and LacCore staff actively maintain and develop software tools that assist in the imaging and interpretation of lake core records.
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PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
The LacCore Facility, funded by this award for the years 2015-2021, is a unique facility globally for support of scientific research involving the study of drill core samples. LacCore maintains expensive and specialized field equipment, lab instrumentation, software applications for working with data, a sample and data repository, an inventory of specialized supplies, and a dedicated staff to advise and manage projects, train and support researchers, and coordinate community activity, all of which are available to scientists and their students in the US and around the globe. By providing these centralized services for the scientific community, all research projects, regardless of size or topic, can use the best methods for collecting, analyzing, and curating their core samples and data, at the lowest possible cost.
During the years funded by this award, LacCore continued to diversify its services for support of additional scientific disciplines and a greater throughput capacity, and witnessed continually increasing enthusiasm for its services. Renowned for its innovative approaches and commitment to the scientific community, LacCore is widely viewed as a model for the establishment and operations of similar facilities worldwide.
In the years funded by this award, a minimum of:
- 1,327 scientists from 267 institutions worldwide visited LacCore for 6,122 total visits.
- 5,252 scientists from 1,154 institutions received LacCore support through more than 68,029 total contacts (includes all visits, meetings, remote consultations, etc.).
- 1,001 graduate students, 797 undergraduate students, and 62 primary/secondary students received training and mentorship in geoscience research.
- 1,276 scientific projects were supported in total.
- 477 peer-reviewed research articles were published by projects receiving LacCore support.
- 52 projects received a total of 745 staff-days of support for field operations.
- 189 projects rented field equipment.
- 10,356 meters of new core samples were scanned and analyzed.
- 488 requests for samples from archived cores in the repository were filled, for 132,621 samples total.
- 14,953 samples from cores were analyzed for mineral, chemical, and biological components.
- 1,191 sales of specialized field and lab supplies were filled.
- 164 orders for specialized field equipment were filled.
- 8,356 sites worldwide are now represented in the repository core sample collection.
Last Modified: 08/27/2021
Modified by: Anders J Noren
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