Research Assistant
Department of Marine Sciences

jjabuka@ucsd.edu

Research interests: marine biogeochemistry, chemical oceanography, atmospheric chemistry, and climate science

Curriculum Vitae

Biography
I was born and raised in the Port of Los Angeles, California where the surrounding marine ecosystems fed my interest in the ocean sciences. I spent much of time as a kid outdoors and on the ocean, and often found myself asking questions about the way our earth systems worked. For my undergraduate degree, I attended the University of California, San Diego, receiving my B.S. in Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences and minoring in Chemistry. I joined the Paytan Biogeochemistry Lab at the start of 2023 as a field technician focusing mostly on our Eddy Covariance towers located in Elkhorn Slough Wetlands.

Research
Our towers in the Elkhorn Slough Wetlands measure local variation of atmospheric carbon dioxide, water vapor, and methane, along with some other environmental variables. Using principles of eddy covariance, we can measure small scale fluxes of these atmospheric components due to local circulation patterns, which can help us understand how the health of a wetland ecosystem impacts biogeochemical gas exchange there. I am focusing my work on processing and analyzing the data we collect from our towers and marine sondes, as well as troubleshooting and maintaining the towers’ functionality. I am interested in understanding how carbon dioxide and methane may differ across ecosystems of varying health, and how environmental variables may contribute to seasonal flux differences.