Stable isotope facility

The facility

The NIOO stable isotope facility is part of the chemical analytical lab, with equipment and facilities to perform stable isotope tracer experiments. Stable isotopes (13C) can be analysed in PLFA, gases (CO2/CH4) , (13C/15N) solid material (e.g. soil, plant material, bird feathers) as well as in DNA and RNA and breath samples of birds (D/H). In addition to the analytical equipment, we have climate chambers to carry out experiments with pulse labelling of plants and also, for example, to fractionate density gradients separating labelled and unlabelled DNA or RNA by means of ultra-centrifugation. 

Research topics

Plants, birds, zooplankton, microbes, birds 

References

• Adrian Ho, Hyo Jung Lee, Max Reumer,  Marion Meima-Franke, Ciska Raaijmakers, Hans Zweers, Wietse de Boer, Wim H. Van der Putten, Paul L.E. Bodelier. (2019). Unexpected role of canonical aerobic methanotrophs in upland agricultural soils. Soil Biol Biochem 171, 1–8. 
• Amber Heijboer, Peter C. de Ruiter, Paul L.E. Bodelier, George A. Kowalchuk. (2018). Modulation of litter decomposition by the soil microbial food web under influence of land use change. Frontiers in Microbiology, online doi:10.3389/fmicb.2018.02860. 
• Anne Daebeler, Paul L.E. Bodelier, Zheng Yan, Mariet M. Hefting, Zhongjun Jia, Hendrikus J. Laanbroek. (2014). Interactions between Thaumarchaea, Nitrospira and methanotrophs modulate autotrophic nitrification in volcanic grasslands soils. ISME J 8, 2397–2410.
• Paul L.E. Bodelier, Marion Meima-Franke, Cornelis A. Hordijk, Anne K. Steenbergh, Mariet M. Hefting, Levente Bodrossy,  Martin von Bergen and Jana Seifert  (2013). Microbial minorities modulate methane consumption through niche partitioning. 2013. ISME J 7, 2217–2228. 
• Morriën, E., Hannula, S. E., Snoek, B., Helmsing, N. R., Zweers, H., De Hollander, M., Lujan Soto, R., Bouffaud, M. L., Buée, M., Dimmers, W., Duyts, H., Geisen, S., Girlanda, M., Griffiths, R. I., Jørgensen, H-B., Jensen, J., Plassart, P., Redecker, D., Schmelz, R. M.,... van der Putten, W. H. (2017). Soil networks become more connected and take up more carbon as nature restoration progresses. Nature Communications 8, 14349. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms14349.

Running period (guaranteed funding)

Undetermined

Equipment / facilities

Equipment

• Thermo GC-c-IRMS 
• Thermo EA-/GC-c-IRMS
• Ultra Centrifuge (small volume)
• Gradient fractionation system
• Picarro Hydrogen isotope analyser     

Data management

NIOO-KNAW data management policy

Conditions for access

Any requests to make use of stable isotope facilities can be made by contacting Hans Zweers.