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Hi! I am Rut, I am a biogeochemist and oceanographer.
My main research interest is the cycling of elements in the environment, especially the biogeochemistry of carbon. I aim to unravel the natural drivers controlling marine ecosystems and the impact that anthropogenic factors have on them.
American Geophysical Union AGU Fall Meeting
December 2017
Ocean Carbon & Biogeochemistry
2018 Summer Workshop
June 2018
RECENT MEETINGS
Ocean Science
Meeting
February 2018
Buzzards Bay Coalition
Baywatcher
Summer 2017 - 2019
RECENT OUTREACH ACTIVITIES
Falmouth Science and
Engineering Fair (Judge)
March 2018
Woods Hole Science Stroll 2018
Sampling in Gunning Point Pond
MOST RECENT PUBLICATIONS
Hurricanes enhance labile carbon export to the deep ocean
Pedrosa-Pàmies, R., Conte, M. H., Weber, J.C., Johnson, R.
Geophysical Research Letters, August 2019, https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL083719.
Tropical cyclones (hurricanes) generate intense surface ocean cooling and vertical mixing resulting in nutrient upwelling into the photic zone and episodic phytoplankton blooms. However, their influence on the deep ocean remains unknown. Here we present evidence that hurricanes also impact the ocean's biological pump by enhancing export of labile organic material to the deep ocean. In October 2016, Category 3 Hurricane Nicole passed over the Bermuda Time Series site in the oligotrophic NW Atlantic Ocean. Following Nicole's passage, particulate fluxes of lipids diagnostic of fresh phytodetritus, zooplankton and microbial biomass increased by 30‐300% at 1500 m and 30‐800% at 3200 m depths. Mesopelagic suspended particles following Nicole were also enriched in phytodetrital material and in zooplankton and bacteria lipids, indicating particle disaggregation and a deep‐water ecosystem response. Predicted climate‐induced increases in hurricane frequency and/or intensity may significantly alter ocean biogeochemical cycles by increasing the strength of the biological pump.
Hurricane Nicole 12 Oct, 216.
Image: NASA
Carbon cycling in the Sargasso Sea water column: insights from lipid biomarkers in suspended particles
Pedrosa-Pàmies, R., Conte, M. H., Weber, J.C., Johnson, R.
Progress in Oceanography, August 2018, doi: 10.1016/j.pocean.2018.08.005.
This study compares lipid biomarker and bulk constituents (organic carbon and δ13C, nitrogen and carbonate) in suspended particles (30-4400 m depth) collected at the Oceanic Flux Program site in the northern Sargasso Sea (north Atlantic) off Bermuda during three periods of contrasting oceanographic conditions: following the spring bloom (April 2015), during the low productivity period (November 2015), and two weeks after the passage of the Category 3-4 Hurricane Nicole (October 2016). Lipids biomarkers were used to evaluate the contributions of phytoplankton, zooplankton and bacterial sources to the particulate organic carbon (POC), diagenetic transformations of suspended POC throughout the water column and within the nepheloid layer, and seasonal and non-seasonal temporal variability, including the impact of an extreme weather event.
Total lipids in suspended in suspended particles collected in the norther Sargasso Sea (OFP site).