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I am a soil scientist with interest in interactions between physical, chemical, and biological processes that take place in the soils. My primary focus is in soil chemistry, including dissolution, precipitation, and sorption reactions in the soils with both basic science applications including critical zone processes, mineral-organic interactions and applied research looking at fate and transport of organic contaminants and nano-particles in soils that is relevant to environmental quality.
My research in Biosphere 2 is focused on weathering processes and carbon cycling under influence of abiotic and biological factors. Specifically, we examine inorganic carbon sequestration during dissolution of basalt covering Landscape Evolution Observatory slopes and formation of spatial and temporal heterogeneity on the slopes due to its incongruent weathering. We also study biological weathering, how plants and microorganisms influence rock weathering and soil formation and how products of the weathering are compartmentalized within the ecosystem, as well as effect of climate change on these processes. I lead Biosphere 2 BIOGEOCHEMICAL LABORATORY that supports LEO and other Biosphere 2 and University of Arizona projects.Show Less
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Courses
- EOCEnvironmental Organic Chemistry
- EISExplorations in Integrated Science
- ESWCEnvironmental Soil and Water Chemistry
Grants
- Collaborative Research: GCR: Growing a New Science of Landscape Terraformation: The Convergence of Rock, Fluids, and Life to form Complex Ecosystems Across Scales
Co-Investigator (COI)
2021
$1.2M
Active - REU Site: Environmental and Earth Systems Research at Biosphere 2
Principal Investigator (PI)
2021
$514.3K
Active - Integrative Approach to Quantifying Fate of Munitions Constituents on Training Ranges
Principal Investigator (PI)
2019
$680.1K
Active - Phototransformation, Sorption, Transport, and Fate of Mixtures of NTO, DNAN, and Traditional Explosives as a Function of Climatic Conditions
Principal Investigator (PI)
2017
$562.1K
Active - REU Site: Earth Systems Research for Environmental Solutions
Principal Investigator (PI)
2017
$454.8K
- Collaborative Research: Coupled Hydrological and Geochemical Process Evolution at the Landscape Evolution Observatory
Co-Investigator (COI)
2014
$486.2K
- Acquisition of an Instrumentation Array to Monitor and Model Water, Carbon and Energy Fluxes at the Hillslope Scale in the Landscape Evolution....
Co-Investigator (COI)
2014
$188.2K
- REU Site: The Environmental and Earth Systems Research Experiences for Undergraduates Program at Biosphere
Principal Investigator (PI)
2013
$473.6K
- REU Site: The Environmental and Earth Systems Research Experiences for Undergraduates Program at Biosphere 2
Principal Investigator (PI)
2013
$70.8K
- Dissolution of NTO, DNAN and Insensitive Munitions Formulations and Their Fates in Soils
Principal Investigator (PI)
2012
$623.2K
Books
- Dissolution of NTO, DNAN, and Insensitive Munitions Formulations and Their Fates in Soils
2022
- Biogeochemical Cycles: Ecological Drivers and Environmental Impact
2020
News
- DOD Funds UA Climate Change, Environment Projects
2012
- NSF Grant Creates Undergraduate Research Program at Biosphere 2
2010
- How Microbes Eat Rocks
2010
- Cleveland 10th Graders Begin Research at Biosphere 2
2009
Publications (54)
Recent
- span style= font-size:12pt; Transport of insensitive munitions constituents, NTO, DNAN, RDX, and HMX in runoff and sediment under simulated rainfall. /span
2023
- A laboratory rill study of IMX-104 transport in overland flow
2023
- Elevated temperatures drive abiotic and biotic degradation of organic matter in a peat bog under oxic conditions
2022
- Reactive transport modeling of basalt weathering and early soil formation within a highly-controlled, sloping lysimeter.
2021
- Soil microbial composition and carbon mineralization are associated with vegetation type and temperature regime in mesocosms of a semiarid ecosystem
2021
- Biological invasions and climate change amplify each other’s effects on dryland degradation
2021
- Contrasting Community Assembly Forces Drive Microbial Structural and Potential Functional Responses to Precipitation in an Incipient Soil System.
2021
- Outdoor dissolution and photodegradation of insensitive munitions formulations IMX-101 and IMX-104: Photolytic transformation pathway and mechanism study.
2021
- Reactive transport modeling of basalt weathering and early soil formation within a highly-controlled, sloping lysimeter
2020
- Biotic soil-plant interaction processes explain most of hysteric soil CO efflux response to temperature in cross-factorial mesocosm experiment
2020
- Assessing Microbial Community Patterns During Incipient Soil Formation From Basalt
2019
- From rock to life. A mass balance analysis of oxidative biological weathering and biosignature formation
2019
- Biotic soil-plant interaction processes explain most of hysteric soil CO2 efflux response to temperature in cross-factorial mesocosm experiment.
2019
- Photo-transformation of aqueous nitroguanidine and 3-nitro-1,2,4-triazol-5-one: Emerging munitions compounds
2019
- Dissolution and transport of insensitive munitions formulations IMX-101 and IMX-104 in saturated soil columns
2018
- Photo-transformation of NQ and NTO
2018
- Trace element mobilization during incipient bioweathering of four rock types
2018
- Predicting fate of insensitive munitions in the environment
2017
- Rapid CO2 drawdown during basalt weathering as affected by climate change
2017
- Column transport studies of 3-nitro-1,2,4-triazol-5-one (NTO) in soils
2017
- CO2 diffusion into pore spaces limits weathering rate of an experimental basalt landscape
2017
- Ecosystem Composition Controls the Fate of Rare Earth Elements during Incipient Soil Genesis
2017
- Batch soil adsorption and column transport studies of 2, 4-dinitroanisole (DNAN) in soils
2017
- Nutrient uptake by plants grown in basaltic soil impacted by climate change
2017
- Effect of elevated CO2 and temperature on weathering of basalt without and in the presence of higher plants
2017
- Adsorption and Attenuation Behavior of 3-nitro-1,2,4-triazol-5-one (NTO) for Eleven Soils
2016
- Soil Lysimeter Excavation for Coupled Hydrological, Geochemical, and Microbiological Investigations
2016
- Pore water chemistry reveals gradients in mineral transformation across a model basaltic hillslope
2016
- Mineral nutrient mobilization by plants from rock: Influence of rock type and arbuscular mycorrhiza
2015
- The Landscape Evolution Observatory: A large-scale controllable infrastructure to study coupled Earth-surface processes
2015
- Outdoor Dissolution of Detonation Residues of Three Insensitive Munitions Formulations
2015
- Multilevel approach to mentoring in the Research Experiences for Undergraduates programs
2015
- Dissolution of three insensitive munitions formulations
2015
- Incipient subsurface heterogeneity and its effect on overland flow generation -- insight from a modeling study of the first experiment at the Biosphere 2 Landscape Evolution Observatory
2014
- Impact of organic carbon on weathering and chemical denudation of granular basalt
2014
- 5.0. Dissolution of NTO, DNAN and Insensitive Munitions Formulations and their Fates in Soils
2014
- Insights into the dissolution and the three-dimensional structure of insensitive munitions formulations
2013
- Green leaf volatiles and oxygenated metabolite emission bursts from mesquite branches following light-dark transitions
2012
- Abiotic factors shape microbial diversity in Sonoran desert soils
2012
- Twelve testable hypotheses on the geobiology of weathering
2011
- Uptake of cesium (Cs+) by building materials in aqueous batch systems
2011
- Surfactive stabilization of multi-walled carbon nanotube dispersions with dissolved humic substances
2009
- Dissolution and transport of 2,4-DNT and 2,6-DNT from M1 propellant in soil
2009
- Solid phase evolution in the Biosphere 2 hillslope experiment as predicted by modeling of hydrologic and geochemical fluxes
2009
- Sorption of high explosives to water-dispersible clay: Influence of organic carbon, aluminosilicate clay, and extractable iron
2009
- Factors influencing the partitioning and toxicity of nanotubes in the aquatic environment
2008
- Dissolution and transport of TNT, RDX, and composition B in saturated soil columns
2006
- Calcium and magnesium effects on ammonia adsorption by soil clays
2005
- Anionic polysaccharide sorption by clay minerals
2005
- Influence of exchangeable cations on water adsorption by soil clays
2004
- SOIL DEGRADATION AS A RESULT OF WATER EROSION
2003
- Clay dispersion, infiltration, and erosion as influenced by exchangeable Ca and Mg
2002
- Use of soil amendments to prevent soil surface sealing and control erosion
1998
- Hydraulics and erosion in eroding rills
1997