PhD Graduate
Department of Ocean Sciences
kkmayfield[at]ucsc[dot]edu
Research interests: Geochemistry in river basins
Biography
I was born and raised in Lihue, Kaua`i, Hawai`i by my parents, Janet and Jim Mayfield. I have a younger sister, Christy, and a dog named Pawesome. Having spent my life surrounded by the ocean and waterfalls, I naturally became interested in our impacts on the natural environment. I have been teaching kids about Native Hawaiian botany and resource management with the education department at the National Tropical Botanical Gardens (Kaua`i, Hawai`i) since 8th grade. My freshman year, I attended the University of California at Davis for Environmental Science & Management, with an emphasis in soil science. However, I received the rest of my undergraduate education at theUniversity of Hawaii at Manoa and conducted my undergraduate thesis on submarine groundwater discharge in Kahana Bay (O`ahu, Hawai`i) under the guidance of Dr. Henrieta Dulaiova and Dr. Craig Glenn. I spent the summer of 2012 at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute studying river geochemisty in the Narragansett Bay area (Rhode Island) with Dr. Bernhard Peucker-Ehrenbrink. Now, I am a 4th year PhD student in the Ocean Sciences department working with Dr. Adina Paytan.
Research
My research interests include silicate weathering rates and how they can be deduced using from the isotope systematics of their weathering products in major rivers. Silicate weathering rates are important because of the major role they play in atmospheric [CO2] sequestration and, consequently, the global climate. My study site is the Fraser River, which is ideal because of its drainage basin size, its relatively pristine condition, the wide range of lithologies it drains, and its lack of damns/diversions that might artificially affect its chemistry. I will be analyzing river water samples for Li, Ca, Mg, and stable Sr isotope ratios to determine if relationships exist between these isotope systematics and the weathering of the Fraser basin’s different lithologies. These weathering rate proxies can then be utilized to deduce paleo-weathering rates and better understand the variability of weathering under paleo-warm periods.
