Assemblage of sea ice diatoms from McMurdo Sound, Antarctica Photo by G. T. Taylor

Biogeochemical Transformation of Energy and Elements

Anthropogenic alteration of biogeochemical processes such as carbon and nitrogen cycling is thought to be causing a variety of changes to Earth's biosphere. Faculty at SoMAS are working both on projects designed to produce a mechanistic understanding of how energy and nutrients are transformed from one form to another as they pass through marine ecosystems, and on using that new information to discover approaches to mitigate the pressing environmental problems that result from human activities. These projects include studies of the sources, transformations, fates, and fluxes of various organic and inorganic compounds in both planktonic and benthic systems, as well as studies of the relationships between the genetic and physiological diversity of marine microorganisms and the physical and biological processes that structure their habitats, including food web interactions. These efforts are focused at scales ranging from the water quality of a local embayments over seasons and years, to changes in global climate over years and decades.

Researchers:

Aller J., Aller R., Black, Cochran, Collier, Fisher, Lee, Scranton, Taylor, Zhu