Research: Biosphere
Biogeochemistry
Biogeochemical research ranges in scale from microbial to global systems. Our current research interests include the marine carbon cycle and its geochemical record in organic matter and carbonate minerals; microbial recycling of nutrients and carbon; development and use of geochemical proxies for understanding the ancient environment, including its climate; and development of new methods for study of the global carbon cycle.
Environmental Microbiology
Microorganisms are drivers of global biogeochemical cycles and represent the most abundant and diverse forms of life on Earth. Critical biological transformation processes such as nitrogen fixation, oceanic primary productivity, and methane cycling are catalyzed through the activity of microorganisms. However, the composition of microbial communities and their role in structuring ecosystems and the Earth’s climate are poorly understood. Our research is focused on understanding microbial processes in terrestrial, marine, and extreme ecosystems. It spans the study of lignocellulose degradation by termite gut microbiota, anaerobic cycling of carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur in microbial mats and sediments, and methane cycling in the ocean.
Faculty Involved
Christian Frankenberg
Jared R. Leadbetter
Dianne K. Newman
Victoria Orphan
Alex Sessions
Paul O. Wennberg
Tools and Facilities
Environmental Analysis Center
Providing researchers with an important baseline of environmental data, the EAC houses sophisticated instrumentation to examine pollutants in groundwater, date prehistoric fossils, and analyze the composition of smog.
Biogeochemical Laboratories
The biogeochemical laboratories provide facilities and instrumentation for measuring the abundance, identity, and stable-isotope composition (including 2H, 13C, 15N, 18O, and 34S) of organic and inorganic constituents in a variety of environmental sample types, including organisms, water, sediments, and rocks.
Environmental Microbiology Laboratories
In the environmental microbiology laboratories, the diversity and metabolic activities of microorganisms from terrestrial and marine ecosystems are characterized through cultivation, microscopic imaging, metagenomics, and molecular and isotopic analysis. Researchers use an array of instruments, including anaerobic chambers, platforms for performing microfluidics-based analyses of the nucleic acid contents of environmental single cells, capillary sequencers, quantitative PCR, epifluorescence microscopes, and CAMECA secondary ion mass spectrometers available through the Center for Microanalysis.
© 2017 California Institute of Technology. All rights reserved. | Caltech home | Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences