research overview
- My interdisciplinary research combines experimental, observational, analytical, and field-based techniques to study the geochemistry of Earth’s terrestrial, aquatic, and cryosphere systems. There is a dire need to understand the geochemical cycling of salts and nutrients both in modern systems and through time, which can help to predict how Earth’s systems may be perturbed with future changes in climate. In addition, understanding how extreme environments respond to disturbance, and how these processes inform landscape development, could be critical for fundamental ecology and discerning evidence for life or potential habitability on other planets and moons in the Solar System. Research in my group, known as the Polar and Environmental Geochemistry Lab (Polar ENV), focuses on the geochemistry of ice-free and ice-covered environments in the Arctic, Antarctic and urban areas. We are particularly interested in research within the following themes: 1) How does the geochemistry of soil and ice in the cryosphere influence ecosystem development and inform habitat suitability on Earth and within the Solar System? 2) What are the current, past, and future effects of global change on resource-limited arid environments? 3) How do natural systems, urban geochemistry, and equity intersect? 4) How have anthropogenic processes perturbed biogeochemical cycles? Within these themes, I was a co-author on three peer-reviewed publications on Antarctic surface processes, and a co-author on one paper focused on GeoHealth. I have three proposal either funded or recommended for funding that will address issues in Greenland and Antarctica.
