Research
Reconstructing the Past to Understand the Future
Carbon Cycling in a Changing Landscape
Carbon is a key component in the functioning of aquatic ecosystems, influencing water quality and ecological processes. We investigate how climate change, land-use shifts, and natural disturbances, such as forest fires and insect outbreaks, alter the movement of carbon from land to water. By combining environmental monitoring with long-term data from archives such as lake sediment and peat cores, we study how carbon dynamics have changed over timescales from decades to millennia.
Lakes and the Global Carbon Cycle
Although lakes cover only a small portion of the Earth’s surface, they play a major role in the global carbon cycle. They transform, emit, and store carbon, acting as both carbon sources and sinks. Our research examines how lakes mediate carbon flows between land, ocean, and atmosphere, and how their role is changing in response to climate warming, permafrost thaw, land-use change, and other human-driven pressures.
Connections Among Carbon, Nutrients, Contaminants, and Aquatic Biota
Variations in the amount and type of organic matter entering lakes can alter key ecological processes, affecting water clarity, thermal stratification, biological productivity, and the transport of nutrients and contaminants. We study how changes in carbon dynamics affect aquatic life, biodiversity, and the mobility and fate of elements such as nitrogen, phosphorus, mercury, arsenic, and lead. Understanding these linkages is essential for evaluating water quality, ecological health, and associated risks to human well-being in a changing environment.
