Dr. Michener,
You may want to think about preserving animal materials in ethanol, or some
equivalent. I've had to take this route for samples sent back to me from
remote locations in Russia and the Canadian Arctic, where drying is
basically out of the question. Ethanol is a weak polar solvent, and from
preliminary analyses in our lab, seems to have little or no effect on the
original isotope signatures. At most, it seems to be solubilizing some
lipid - which some consider a benefit - when animals have variable lipid
loads.
cheers,
rickd
At 09:30 AM 4/29/1999 -0400, you wrote:
>Hi All,
>
>I've got a student leaving for Africa in about a month. He'll be collecting
>lots of samples for stable isotope analysis, but preserving and drying
>samples is going to be a problem. Ice and refrigeration is nonexistent (the
>field investigators drink their beer warm!) and there's no drying oven.
>They typically hang up the fish in the sun to dry, but flies and maggots are
>a problem.
>
>Have any of you worked in the tropics and have any hints to pass on? I
>thought of perhaps a reflector oven in front of a fire (good old Boy Scout
>days!), provided he doesn't cook the samples. Any thoughts?
>
>Thanks,
>
>Bob
>
>***************************************************
>Robert Michener
>IRMS Laboratory Manager
>Boston University Stable Isotope Laboratory
>Boston University
>5 Cummington St.
>Boston, MA 02215
>(voice) 617-353-6980
>(fax) 617-353-6340
>email: [log in to unmask]
>Lab web site: http://bio.bu.edu/~sil/
>"You are what you eat...plus a few permil!"
>******************************************************
>
>
^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~
<>< ><> <><
Richard (Rick) Doucett
Department of Biology, * nullum gratuitum prandium *
University of Waterloo, *** there is no free lunch ***
200 University Avenue West,
Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA, N2L 3G1 ><>
Office: B1-164B ><>
ph: 519-888-4567, ext.6449 (office), ext.6747 (isotope lab)
ph: 519-886-6431 (home) <><
fax: 519-746-0614
email: [log in to unmask] ><>
http://www.science.uwaterloo.ca/research_groups/wbi/pages/riccv.html
<>< ><> ><>
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