LATEST RESEARCH
The changing Arctic and organic matter matters! This is a multi-level, molecular-level C characterization project to decipher what C is there and what it's going to do. Does it stimulate processes that will irreversibly change our marine waters and coastal ecosystems? Stay tuned!
Led by: Juliana D'Andrilli (UNT) and Tessa Crouch (Hour Glass Climate).
The river is receiving more allochthonous loads with climate warming. These loads are shifting the interaction between autotrophs and heterotrophs from mutualism to competition, leading to more carbon dioxide release to the atmosphere, describing a shift in the river's metabolic regime. The time is now to measure the character of the incoming loads and how that material is processed in the river before it flows out into the ocean. This project is a large collaboration across diverse disciplines including hydrology, biology, chemistry, and ecology.
Led by: Benoit Demars (NIVA), Leah Jackson-Blake (NIVA), Stein Rune Karlsen (Norwegian Research Centre), and Juliana D'Andrilli (UNT). Research Funding: Research Council of Norway.
What DOM compounds fluoresce in natural and engineered ecosystems?
We are identifying the chemical compounds that can be detected with Excitation Emission Matrix Fluorescence Spectroscopy using direct measurement techniques in order to unify fluorescent community language that will minimize confusion and misinterpretations. Researchers, both young and old, let’s keep the conversation going and learn more from DOM photophysical properties that we can measure by EEMs.
Led by Fernando Rosario-Ortiz (University of Colorado, Boulder) and Juliana D'Andrilli (UNT)
Environmental Science & Technology 2022: PDF
Environmental Science & Technology 2020: PDF
How have human beings impacted these waters?
We are identifying spatiotemporal patterns of fluorescent DOM in the West Fork of the Gallatin River, coupling gross primary production, ecosystem respiration, and DOM characterization as the system moves from peak to base flow conditions with increasing land-use development.
Led by Robert A. Payn (Montana State University)
and Juliana D'Andrilli (UNT)
This is a mass spectrometry (MS) DOM research project with multiple participating laboratories worldwide working towards an understanding of the marine and terrestrial DOM signatures in marine water masses of the Arctic Ocean. The project centers on using high resolution Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry for detailed chemical characterization at the molecular level.
Led by: Colin A. Stedmon (DTU), Mats Granskog (Norwegian Polar Institute), Christopher Osburn (North Carolina State University), and Juliana D'Andrilli (UNT). Project funding: Research Council of Denmark.
What effects does legacy mining have on river ecosystems and how will the EPA's superfunded Upper Clark Fork River project change ecosystem regimes over the next 20 years?
We are a large team of 5 researchers seeking to identify the metabolic ecosystem regime changes with ongoing river restoration efforts. The team's multidisciplinary efforts are focused on metal concentrations, water quality (inorganic and organic carbon), DOM quality and metal complexation, hydrology, and biological dynamics from microbes to aquatic organisms, such as insects and fish.
Led by: Maury Valett (University of Montana), Mike DeGrandpre (University of Montana), Juliana D'Andrilli (UNT), Rob Payn (Montana State University), and Marc Peipoch (Stroud Water Research Center). See data products available with open access on the Environmental Data Initiative platform. Project funding: NSF Long Term Research in Environmental Biology.
Limnology & Oceanography Bulletin: PDF
Do you think Earth's extremophiles are ready to survive space flight or on other planetary bodies? What happens when we put microbial extremophiles into more stressful conditions? This is a project that is designed to understand the energetics of microbial extremophiles in the Atacama Desert and hypersaline lakes of Brazil in order to quantify how they adapt to further resource deprivation or even harsher conditions. Our team of researchers will connect field sampling campaigns with laboratory manipulations to calculate the flux of energy. We will build energetic models at cellular and population scales and monitor the waste products of metabolic processes to learn about recycling capabilities in space devices.
Led by: Juliana D'Andrilli (UNT), Jim Junker (UNT), Brandon Gaesser (UNT), Steve Techtmann (The Ohio State University; OSU), Amy Marcarelli (Michigan Technological University; MTU), Marshall Bowles (Dauphin Island Sea Lab; DISL), and Davi Cunha (Universidade de Sao Paolo). Project funding: Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR).
What if we could use natural sources of energy to replace battery powered sensors in the ocean? We are researching if and how DOM can fuel enough energy to a microbial fuel cell to generate enough power to sustain sensor measurements from 30 to 365 days! The team is comprised of environmental scientists, microbiologists, and marine engineers because it is our task to learn about DOM as a fuel, build microbial fuel cells, and design a self sustaining sensor that will have enough energy to run for a year without fail or harm to the environment.
Led by: Steve Techtmann (OSU), Amy Marcarelli (MTU), Jennifer Becker (MTU), Jamey Anderson (MTU), Gordon Parker (MTU), Michael Sayers (MTU), Mario Tamburri (University of Maryland), and Juliana D'Andrilli (UNT). Project funding: Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
How does biogeochemistry aid or deter mosquito activity in freshwater ecosystems? This is a controlled mesocosm project that integrates multiple disciplines to better understand biogeochemical "hot moments" that drive microscopic biological organisms and chemical molecules to macroscopic organisms and population dynamics.
Led by: Jason Bohenek (UNT), Zacchaeus Compson (UNT), Jim Junker (UNT), Calvin Henard (UNT), and Juliana D'Andrilli (UNT). Project funding: The Advanced Environmental Research Institute (AERI) at UNT.