Research in the Chemical Oceanography Lab focuses on understanding the processes that control the distribution and cycling of nutrients and trace metals in the ocean and on developing new approaches for measuring these elements at higher spatial and temporal resolution.

Our research spans estuarine, coastal, and open-ocean environments and combines field observations, oceanographic cruises, laboratory experiments, and autonomous chemical sensing.

Current Research Areas

• Nutrient and trace metal biogeochemistry — Sources, sinks, transport, and transformations of nutrients and trace metals and their connections to marine productivity and ecosystem processes.
• Autonomous chemical sensing — Development and application of programmable, miniaturized chemical analyzers for high-frequency measurements of nutrients and trace metals.
• Coastal and estuarine biogeochemistry — Investigating nutrient and trace metal cycling in dynamic coastal environments, including responses to natural and anthropogenic disturbances.
• Ocean observing systems — Integration of autonomous chemical measurements into sustained coastal observing networks to expand observations of essential biogeochemical variables.
• Open-ocean biogeochemistry — Shipboard and autonomous measurements of nutrients and trace metals to investigate their distributions, cycling, and relationships with oceanographic processes.