Hello Ecologgers - a "desperate" request! I need to get about 30 soil samples analyzed for Hg in the next 2 weeks.
Let me explain... I have worked with high school students on independent research projects for the last 15 or so years. This year I am working with a student on the effects of prescribed forest burning on wildfire mercury emissions. We had a plan to use neutron activation analysis to determine the mercury in our soil samples. We sent the samples in for analysis, and, oops - the detection limit was higher than the anticipated level of Hg in the soil. We have been desperately looking for another way to analyze these samples for the past month. Even with scanty results, the student's project has been selected to participate in the International Sustainable World Project Olympiad (I-SWEEEP) in Houston, TX in mid-April and the International Science and Engineering Fair in Reno, NV in mid-May, so we really want to get these samples analyzed. It doesn't help that we are in rural southwestern Oregon, and our one university contact who routinely helps us with chemistry-related analyses has struck out with the inorganic chemists at his institution. If you have some solid contact information for us where we could get the samples analyzed, I'm all ears (and all inbox!) Thank you, Robyn Darbyshire Hands-On Forestry Program
