Nitrogen Cycling in Oxygen Minimum Zones

Nitrogen cycling in coastal and low oxygen environments can vastly differ from standard aerobic pathways. 

One project in the lab is focused on testing the hypothesis that reactions in the nitrogen cycle, in particular nitrite (NO₂-) oxidation, could become limited by metal availability, and that trace metal demands for these organisms may be increased under low oxygen conditions. This effort combines chemistry, biology and engineering in an effort to quantify the abundance of trace metal containing enzymes—metalloenzymes—under these conditions.

One of the challenges to characterizing the biogeochemistry of the oxygen minimum zones found in the mesopelagic ocean is an inability to effectively sample it. As a sampling platform we will use the novel biogeochemical AUV Clio that enables high-resolution vertical profile samples for biochemical and microbial measurements by large volume filtration of microbial particulate material on a research expedition in the Eastern Tropical Pacific Ocean.

Affiliated Researchers