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Laser spectroscopy steered 13 C‐labelling of plant material in a walk‐in growth chamber
Author(s) -
Slaets Johanna I. F.,
Resch Christian,
Mayr Leopold,
Weltin Georg,
Heiling Maria,
Gruber Roman,
Dercon Gerd
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
rapid communications in mass spectrometry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.528
H-Index - 136
eISSN - 1097-0231
pISSN - 0951-4198
DOI - 10.1002/rcm.8669
Subject(s) - chemistry , analytical chemistry (journal) , absorption (acoustics) , spectroscopy , mass spectrometry , carbon fibers , laser , spectrometer , environmental chemistry , optics , chromatography , physics , materials science , quantum mechanics , composite number , composite material
Rationale Carbon‐13 ( 13 C)‐labelled plant material forms the basis for experiments elucidating soil organic carbon dynamics and greenhouse gas emissions. Quantitative field‐scale tracing is only possible if plants are labelled homogeneously in large quantities. By using a laser spectrometer to automatically steer the isotopic ratio in the chamber, it is possible to obtain large amounts of homogeneously labelled plant material. Methods Ninety‐six maize plants were labelled for 25 days until tassel formation in a 15 m 3 walk‐in growth chamber with a continuous air δ 13 C‐CO 2 value of 400‰. A Los Gatos Research laser absorption spectrometer controlled the ambient δ 13 C‐CO 2 value in the chamber through steering of the mass flow controllers with 13 C‐enriched and natural abundance CO 2 gas. Results Laser absorption spectroscopy steering kept the δ 13 C value of chamber air between 368 and 426‰. The resulting 1 kg dry matter of 13 C‐labelled shoots showed an average δ 13 C value of 384‰ and accuracy of 8‰ (half width of the 95% confidence interval). Only the oldest leaves showed larger heterogeneity. The growth chamber eliminated variability between plants. The δ 13 C value of the stabile material did not differ significantly from that of bulk material. Conclusions Laser spectroscopy controlled 13 C labelling of plants in a walk‐in growth chamber successfully kept the isotopic ratio of the CO 2 in the chamber air constant. Therefore, large quantities of material were labelled homogeneously at the inter‐ and intra‐plant level, thus establishing a method to provide high‐quality input for quantitative isotopic tracer studies.