Welcome!! The Geochemistry and Geochemical Sensing Lab is based at FAU Harbor Branch
Oceanographic Institute and is co-sponsored by the FAU Institute for Sensing and Embedded Network and
Systems Engineering (I-SENSE). The lab develops in situ techniques and instrumentation to monitor
elemental concentrations and fluxes over space and time in aquatic environments such as oceans, estuaries,
rivers, lakes, groundwater, and most recently, frozen ice. Our tools include electrochemical, fluidic, and optical
sensors for the measurement of nutrients, trace metals, carbon, and sulfur, but we also develop new platforms used to
employ these sensors, such as moorings, seafloor benthic landers, and autonomous underwater vehicles.
Research applications include constraining elemental biogeochemical budgets, water quality monitoring (e.g.
nutrient budgets, harmful algal blooms, hypoxia, and sulfidization), sediment and soil resilience (e.g.
mobilization of trace metals and seagrass site suitability), and ocean exploration (submarine sink “blueholes”
and deep-sea sediment systems).
-Thanks for visiting,
Dr. Jordon Beckler
Assistant Research Professor
We have many, many projects (too many!), but here are some of our favorites:
CURRENT OR PENDING PROJECTS
Blue Hole Biogeochemical Exploration
Description: We are developing seafloor instrumentation packages to determine the role that submarine karst blue holes (i.e. caves & springs) may play in the greater Gulf of Mexico. These environments are turning out to be quite extreme, with intense carbon and nutrient cycling, oxygen depletion, and sulfide enrichment. We think these holes are "life engines" for Gulf of Mexico: by serving as carbon traps, they are ultimately fueling fisheries and providing seed ground for microbial life!
(NOAA Ocean Exploration Research funded with Georgia Tech and Mote Marine Lab) |
PBS made a documentary about the blue holes research!!
Sediment iron-mediated hydrocarbon degradation
(National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine Gulf Research Program funded with Florida A&M University and Bigelow Research Lab)
Sediment Health & Resilience Monitoring
Sediment Health & Resilience Monitoring
Description: We are determining the role that sediments in the Indian River Lagoon (Florida) play in moderating the greater health of the ecosystem. Healthy sediments can sequester nutrients and carbon that lead to eutrophication, but unhealthy sediments may instead promote hypoxia and harmful algal blooms (HABs). We are conducting traditional inventorying of nutrients and carbon spatially in the various IRL basins, but we are also using advanced benthic lander technologies that allow us to determine the biogeochemical processes that are responsible for carbon, nutrient, and oxygen fluxes.
(Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute Foundation and Martin County (FL) funded)
Past Projects
(Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute Foundation and Martin County (FL) funded)
Autonomous Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB) monitoring of Lake Okeechobee (Florida)
Description: We are working with Navocean, Inc. to outfit their 6' long autonomous Nav2 Wind and Solar Drone with sensors for the detection and monitoring of harmful algal blooms and ancillary environmental properties that may control the formation and dissipation of these blooms.
(4Ocean & privately funded)
(4Ocean & privately funded)
Linking riverine iron discharges to harmful algal blooms of Karenia Brevis (Florida Red Tide)
Description: Organic-rich, blackwater rivers like those draining the wetlands of Florida contain high concentrations of dissolved iron. We suspect this iron is contributing to blooms of harmful algae, by fueling key ecological successions (i.e. nitrogen fixation by diazotrophic plankton). These discharges will increase in a future world with more intense, longer-lasting, and wetter storms.
(National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine Gulf Research Program Early Career Fellowship funded)
(National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine Gulf Research Program Early Career Fellowship funded)
EXPLORATORY PROJECTS
Controls of colored-dissolved organic matter fluxes from marine sediments
Description: We have detected extremely dark sediment pore waters in sediments offshore of the Gulf of Mexico. These compounds are created during the dissolution of iron minerals, and during periods of seasonal hypoxia or after storms, may drastically affect overlying water clarity.
(unfunded, in collaboration with Georgia Tech)
(unfunded, in collaboration with Georgia Tech)
PAST PROJECTS
Past Projects
Subaqueous Soil & Sediment Health/Resilience Determination
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