ONGOING RESEARCH PROJECTS

Nutrient cycling within high latitude environments during past climate transitions
The Arctic Ocean is currently one of the most rapidly warming regions of the world. Among the most striking effects of this warming is a drastic reduction in sea ice, with some models predicting a seasonally ice free Arctic Ocean by 2050. These changes occurring within the Arctic Ocean will have complex effects on nutrient availability and, subsequently, primary productivity. However, different model scenarios for the biogeochemical response to anthropogenic climate change within the Arctic Ocean predict either elevated or reduced nutrient supplies, illustrating the need for improved constraints on how nutrient delivery and benthic remineralization will evolve under warmer conditions. The sedimentary record provides an opportunity to reconstruct biogeochemical cycles during past intervals of sea ice minima to help predict what may occur in the future. Using sediment cores from north of Svalbard, I am reconstructing past changes in micro- (Fe) and macro- (phosphorus (P), nitrogen, and silica) nutrient delivery and recycling in response to climatic and oceanographic perturbations.
Material for this work was taken on the Transitions in the Seasonal Sea Ice Zone cruise (TRANSSIZ) in 2015. TRANSSIZ was initiated by the Arctic in Rapid Transition Early Career Research Network (https://www.arcticinrapidtransition.com).
Modern Arctic Ocean benthic biogeochemistry
Recently, I have been investigating modern nutrient, trace metal, and carbon sedimentary fluxes in the Barents Sea and on the Eurasian Arctic margin by using paired sediment and pore water samples. These results will improve our understanding of nutrient recycling from the sediments to the overlying water column, as well as how environmental signals are preserved within the sedimentary record. This work includes collaborations with the UK National Environmental Research Council (NERC)-funded Changing Arctic Ocean Seafloor (ChAOS) project and the Norwegian Nansen Legacy project.

Photo credit: Mark Zindorf
