Joey Crosswell, Ph.D. Student
UNC-Chapel Hill
Institute of Marine Sciences
3431 Arendell Street
Morehead City , NC 28557
Email
Research Interests:
Chemical oceanography, specifically carbon cycling, phytoplankton ecology, environmental and global health
Education:
- 2007 - B.S. Neuroscience, The University of Texas at Austin
Bio:
I am a Ph.D. student in the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering. My research focuses on the role of phytoplankton as modulators of CO2 flux in estuarine ecosystems. Estuaries, some of the most productive aquatic ecosystems on Earth, are a central component of regional and global carbon cycles and phytoplankton often dominate estuarine production. The fate of phytoplankton production (e.g., trophic transfer via grazing, sedimentation, water column remineralization) is determined in part by both the size structure and taxonomic composition of the phytoplankton community, both of which vary considerably in time and space within estuaries. Phytoplankton taxa and/or species differ in their labile and refractory biochemical fractions, toxicity and cell size (which spans 4 orders of magnitude). These biological variations among the members of the phytoplankton community are a potential determinant in whether different phytoplankton populations have disparate sink terms with regard to uptake or release of atmospheric CO2. I explore the relationship between phytoplankton community composition and larger-scale biogeochemical transformations, e.g., ecosystem metabolism and CO2 fluxes in an effort to answer the questions:
How do spatial and temporal variability in phytoplankton production affect net ecosystem metabolism in a representative eutrophic estuary?
How do the size structure and taxonomic composition of the phytoplankton community affect net ecosystem metabolism?
Hobbies:
Hiking, camping, snowboarding, mountain biking, sailing, volleyball, scuba diving, anything and everything outdoors, working on cars/boats/planes you name it, reading, astronomy, chess
back to the top
