• Sample Volume First line is amount needed for analyses; second line is the desired amount of sample to be submitted, to allow enough for replicate analyses.
• Precision is the average standard deviation (1-sigma) in per mille units.
• Cost Per Analysis is an estimate for off-campus non-academic research, including commercial parties and governmental agencies. Prices are lower for academic projects and university research. Assistance with interpretation of data is available. We do not attempt to compete with commercial labs. Students, please see note below.
• Analysis time is an average turnaround time for a small number of samples (1-50). Actual time may be shorter or longer depending on machine performance, barring mechanical failures beyond our control.

In development

We are currently developing a system to analyse atmospheric water vapor for both hydrogen and oxygen isotopes based on GC-IRMS (Gas Chromatography - Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry). The amount of water needed in this technique is many orders of magnitude less than in conventional techniques, nanoliters as opposed to milliliters. The volume of air sample needed, ~1 to 40 cm³, is small enough to permit sampling via aircraft based systems, eddy flux accumulators, and other low volume samplers. Samples can be taken rapidly, and with high temporal resolution heretofore impractical, if not impossible.

Shipping

PLEASE DO NOT SEND SAMPLES BY STANDARD US POSTAL SERVICE.  Choose a street delivery service such as FedEx, UPS, etc. We request that you email us with an electronic list (spreadsheet) of sample IDs, so that we can avoid any possibility of data entry typos on our end. If possible, especially with large sample sets, we appreciate some organization of the samples in the shipping container, so we don't have to re-order them. Send samples to:

Bruce H. Vaughn
INSTAAR Stable Isotope Laboratory
INSTAAR
1560 30th Street
Boulder, CO 80303

phone 303 492-7985 lab

Billing

• We will bill your university/party/agency after the work is completed.
• Most universities pay with a purchase order or credit card.
• We can pre-bill if requested.

Note to students

• We strongly support student projects, both graduate and undergraduate.
• If you have a limited number of samples, and an even more limited source of funding, we may be able to help.
• Email us for details.

Standard gases

We also perform calibration of clean dry air cylinders typically filled at the Niwot clean air site by NOAA personnel. Calibrated tanks can be obtained from NOAA CMDL, analyzed for mixing ratios of a suite of greenhouse gases, including CO, CO₂, N₂O, and CH₄. For more information, visit the NOAA CMDL standard-gases web site: If in doubt, please contact us. Reference cylinders usuallly require analyses made over a period of weeks to verify the stability of the standard air before it can be released and certified for use. Turnaround times can vary, depending on the performance of the cylinder. Tyically we make approximately 30 measurements over a period of 6 to 12 weeks. Actual time may be shorter or longer depending on machine and cylinder performance, barring any mechanical failures beyond our control. Please contact us for current estimates.

We measure the stable isotopes of carbon dioxide and methane in order to understand global sources and sinks of these greenhouse gases.

As the concentrations of greenhouse gases increase, the Earth's climate is changing. Two of the most important heat-trapping gases are carbon dioxide and methane, yet we don't fully understand their sources - where and how these gases are released - and their sinks - how they are taken up or destroyed.  Stable isotopes are very useful for understanding sources and sinks due to processes that discriminate against one isotope over the other. For instance, because plants strongly discriminate against the heavy isotope of CO₂, we can use d¹³CO₂ to estimate ocean versus land uptake of carbon dioxide. Because sources of methane have different isotopic signatures, we can use d13CH4 to calculate emissions of methane from differerent sources. The isotope measurements, along with concentrations of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere, constrain models of these gases, and increase their predictive capability for understanding future climate regimes and making policy decisions.

The INSTAAR Stable Isotope Lab (SIL) has collaborated with the Carbon Cycle Greenhouse Gases Group (CCGG) at NOAA Environmental Research Laboratory Global Monitoring Division to measure C¹³ and O¹⁸ of carbon dioxide since 1990, and C¹³ of methane since 1998. This involves measuring flasks and programmable flask packages from the NOAA Cooperative Sampling Network. We are currently working on our system for analysis of deuterium of methane, are developing a method for analyzing C¹³ and O¹⁸ of carbon monoxide as part of the INFLUX project, and have completed a pilot project studying atmosperic N₂O isotopes and isotopomers.

See NOAA ESRL for more information, go directly to the data, and learn more about why isotopes are useful for understanding sources and sinks of carbon.

We measure the stable isotopes of oxygen and hydrogen in water from Ice cores.

On Earth's great ice sheets, Greenland and Antarctica, snow accumulates and never melts, creating a repository of precipitation back in time. Stable isotopes of precipitation are a proxy for temperature when the snow fell, making ice cores a rich paleoclimate archives. In addition, ice cores preserve records of atmospheric gases, chemistry, and physical properties, and they are unique for their combination of high resolution and long time scales.  Understanding the climates of the past is essential for predicting the Earth’s responses of human-caused climate change, and ice cores are invaluable in this effort.

For more than 15 years, SIL has been involved in ice core projects in Greenland, Antarctica, the high-altitude tropics (Ecuador, Peru, Tibet), and other regions. Over this time, SIL has become a world leader in measurement of both deuterium/hydrogen and oxygen-18/16 ratios of ice. In addition to the stable isotope analysis, we are involved with the coring, processing, and modeling/analysis of the data.

We have recently completed ice core projects at NEEM, Greenland, and WAIS Divide, Antarctica. We measured the ice from WAIS Divide on a custom-built continuous melter system connected to a Picarro cavity ring-down mass spectrometer, resulting in higher-than ever measurement resolution on a deep core. We will use this system to measure the core from South Pole, and will develop the next generation core for analysis of the Renland Ice Core.

SIL is participating in the CU-based, NSF funded Sustainability Research Network called the Air Water Gas project which is aimed at studying the oil and gas industry in the Rocky Mountain West.

The mission of this project is to provide a logical, science-based framework for evaluating the environmental, economic, and social trade-offs between development of natural gas and protection of water and air resources. The project also aims to educate the public and influence the development of policies and regulations governing natural gas and oil development.

Unlike all of our lab-based measurements, Mobile Methane measurements are recorded on the fly as the vehicle drives. The data is plotted onto an interactive map and Landsat image.

Carbon isotope ratios of organic material are useful tools in ecology and ecosystem science. We have measured thousands of leaf, soil, and other organic materials in studies aimed at understanding plant physiology, hydrology, and biogeochemistry.

The hydrologic cycle plays an important role in ice core research.

Many of the discoveries made from polar ice cores have deepened our understanding of long term climate signals in both temperature and precipitation; likewise, understanding isotopes in precipitation today are essential to understanding the ice core record. Stable Isotopes are a unique tracer that can reveal volumes about the origin and distribution of precipitation on our planet.

The SIL has collaborated in a large scale effort of analyze the stable isotopes of archived samples obtained from the Global Network of Isotopes in Precipitation (GNIP) program. Students at CU have produced and analyzed seasonal patterns of isotopes in precipitation over the United States.