Our group’s primary research interests lie in the fields of biogeochemistry, chemical oceanography, and paleoceanography. We use both chemical and isotopic tracers in diverse environmental samples such as water, sediments, aerosol, and vegetation in order to study present and past biogeochemical processes on a wide range of temporal and spatial scales. An overarching goal of our research is to link changes observed in the earth and ocean systems to global changes in climate and tectonics with an emphasis on human impacts. You can find descriptions of our current projects on the profiles of our lab members or view a video for prospective students.

Paleoceanography is the study of past oceanic conditions on geologic time scales. Of interest are past temperatures, salinity, movement of water masses, and biological activity of phytoplankton – algae that are at the base of the marine food chain. Because the world’s oceans closely interact with the atmosphere, paleoceanography can also tell us about past atmospheric conditions. Buried in sequential layers of ocean sediments are the remains of ocean activity such microscopic fossils, minerals, and even elemental changes within minerals and fossils that reveal information about what conditions formed them. These remnants of past chemistry and biology are called proxies and include marine barite, organic carbon, and many isotope systems within these substances.

Biogeochemical cycles describe the interactions between freshwater and oceanic chemistry and the biology – algae, microorganisms, fish – that consumes them. Particularly, we are interested in the nutrients nitrate, phosphate, ammonium, and silicate – the same nutrients found in plant fertilizer – which impact the growth of organisms in the freshwater and marine environments. Trace metals are another important aspect of water chemistry that impact biological activity. The projects in this category are studies of present conditions in lakes and coastal regions, including the groundwater and airborn dust that enters into these ecosystems.

Isotopic Tracers of Biological Processes are one set of the tools we use in our research on natural systems. Isotopes are varying types of atoms of the same element that have a different number of neutrons, which changes the mass of the atom. In nature, many processes choose one “type” of the atom over another leaving an isotopic signature in the end product that we can measure. For example, tiny shelled microorganisms called benthic forams use a different “type” of oxygen in their shells when temperatures are lower than they would if the water was warmer. By determining the oxygen isotopic signature of the forams over time we can see the changes in temperature that have occurred in the geologic record.