The three main laboratory sections of ICENS collaborate in multidisciplinary work on the following topics, taking part in the successive stages of field sampling, sample preparation, laboratory analysis, data handling and interpretation and dissemination of information online or as hardcopy publications.
“ICENS: The First Twenty Years: 1984 to 2004” gives a full account of the first period of our operations and our capabilities and is available for download as a 18.3 Mb file from: http://eshare.uwimona.edu.jm/icens-20-year-report.pdf
Soil organic matter (SOM) contains more carbon than the atmosphere and terrestrial vegetation combined and therefore plays a crucial role in the global cycling of carbon (Figure 1).
Jamaica, a net exporter of coffee, has in recent years seen the importation of soluble coffee increase from 16,872 kg in 2010 to 36,419 kg in 20131.
Jamaican soils are known to be enriched in many elements including arsenic, cadmium and uranium. Suitable reference materials such as NIST 698 Bauxite (Jamaican) do not include reference or information values for measurands of interest such as As, Cd or U.
In this programme ICENS investigated the effects of lead exposure on foods and people between 1995 and 2005. The work was carried out in three successive projects, each one supported by a research grant from the Environmental Foundation of Jamaica (EFJ):
Rice is a widely consumed staple in Jamaica with plain rice and 'rice and peas' ranking in the top ten most commonly consumed starch-bearing foods in Jamaica. For the last 30 years however, large-scale cultivation of rice has been discontinued and the market is supplied entirely by imports.