UEBL Projects

Project: Stable isotopes for evaluating micronutrient metal bioavailability

Summary: In urban environments two of the most common metal contaminants are copper and zinc. In addition to being contaminants, these metals are regulated micronutrients in most organisms. Both have stable isotopes (⁶⁵Cu and ⁶⁸Zn) that are readily quantified and differentiated from the more abundant isotopes (⁶³Cu and ⁶⁶Zn) by modern instrumental techniques (ICP-MS).

Products:

Rodgers, D.W., S.M. Lev, J.W. Snodgrass, D.R. Ownby, L.M. Prince, R.E. Casey. 2011. An enriched stable isotope technique to estimate the availability of soil zinc to Lumbricus terrestris (L.) across a salinization gradient. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. 30(3):607-615. Link to Full Article

Relationship between ⁶⁸Zn:⁶⁶Zn turnover rate and soil zinc toxicity in Lumbricus terrestris (L.). J. Serrano, S.M. Lev, D.R. Ownby, R.E. Casey. Poster. 13th Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium in the Chemical and Biological Sciences, Cantonsville, MD. 2010.

A stable isotope approach to investigating zinc toxicity and internal transport in barley (Hordeum vulgare L.). J.J. New, J.W. Snodgrass, D.R. Ownby, R.E. Casey, S.M. Lev.  Poster.  SETAC North America Meeting 2011.

Developing a Copper Isotope Ratio Method for Estimating Copper Availability to Eisenia fetida.  M.C. Mazzei, S.M. Lev, D.R. Ownby.  Poster.  SETAC North America Meeting 2011.

Stable isotope ratio measurements on biological samples by cryo-LA-ICP-TOF-MS.  S.M. Monk, S.M. Lev.  Poster.  2012 Winter Conference on Plasma Spectrochemistry.