Chemical Oceanography Students

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Current Students

• Amy Byington
• Laura Bodensteiner
• Amanda Gerke
• Berkeley Kauffman
• Tom Kimball
• Allison Myers
• Rhea Sanders
• Elizabeth Sassone

Past Students

• Thomas Chapin
• Carol Chin
• Debbie Colbert
• Teresa Coley
• Russel Fairey
• Laurie Ferioli
• Brian Frantz
• Elizabeth Guenther
• John Haskins
• Wes Heim
• K. Brynie Kaplan
• Eric Kingsley
• Nicolas Ladizinski
• Peter von Langen
• Roger Lewis
• Jocelyn Nowicki
• Encarney Trubea
• Heidi Zamzow

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My thesis consisted of investigating the flux on metals out of the sediments in South San Francisco Estuary. Trace metals can be very toxic to many animal species and biaccumulate up the food chain into species that are consumed by humans. Many people utilize the Estuary as a source of sustinance yet they are contaminating themselves in the process. Understanding they cycling of these contaminants in the Estuary will enable us to better control the fate of all inhabitants in and around the area. Recycle for LIFE!.

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Brynie looked at the filtering efficiency of the asian clam Potamocorbula amerensis in San Francisco Bay.

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I worked with an in situ chemical analyzer (scanner) designed and developed by Dr. Ken Johnson. I used the scanner in conjunction with an Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) or a submarine to measure sulfur in "cold seeps" found on the ocean floor in Monterey Bay and off the coast of Costa Rica. Cold seeps are areas or cracks in the ocean floor where nutrients are actively expelled from the earth's crust. Sulfur is an important alternative energy source for organisms (chemoautotrophs) living on the ocean floor, where sunlight is not available.

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In the nearshore environment the sediments can be an important source or sink of trace metals. The whole purpose of our TEFLOM study is to better understand this environment. I am analyzing our TEFLOM data set, comparing different methods for doing trace metal flux calculations with an eye towards better understanding the movement of these metals into and out of sediments along the continental margin.

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Encarney's thesis consisted of investigating the Chemical and biological mechanisms that control the precipitation and dissolution of arsenic, a redox-sensitive metalloid toxin, at the sediment-water interface in the South San Francisco Bay are described.

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Rhodoliths, free-living calcareous red algae, create large and diverse habitats worldwide. Although these plants are abundant and ecologically important, little is known about their growth rate. We determined the growth rate for an individual rhodolith, Lithothamnium crassiusculum, from the southern Gulf of California through 14C analysis using Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS). The growth rate was calibrated against the isotopic signature of a coral (Porites panamensis) with known growth rate. The comparison of "bomb" radiocarbon from this coral with an 18O based growth rate to the "bomb" radiocarbon record of the rhodolith indicated a rhodolith radial growth rate of 0.6 mm/yr. This growth rate suggests large L. crassiusculum, which have been found with radii in excess of 6 cm, may live over 100 years. Since rhodolith beds form important habitats for other species, this growth rate indicates recovery from disturbances will be slow. Declines in the ?14C record associated with the large El Nino events of 1957, 1982, and 1992 indicate 14C analysis may identify large past climatic events. The ability to determine past climate changes through AMS 14C analysis of rhodoliths would increase the geographic range of available climate records from the tropical oceans to the entire global ocean and potentially allow for the determination of paleoclimate from rhodoliths in fossil beds.

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Worked on a hydrogen sulfide analysis using a technique without chemicals.

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