Who's who
Current “isotopist”
team members:
KENDALL, Carol (650-329-4576, ckendall@usgs.gov)
Chief of the Isotope Tracers Project. Carol is a 4th generation Californian
who got her BS and MS at UC-Riverside, and later her PhD at the University of Maryland
while working at the USGS headquarters in Virginia. Since 1990 she has been the
head of the Isotope Tracers research project at the USGS regional office in
Menlo Park.
The purpose of this project is to develop new isotope methods and
applications to solve problems of national importance. Her main research
focus is tracing sources of nutrients, organics, and water in
human-impacted aquatic ecosystems. She is the co-editor of the 1998 book
“Isotope Tracers in Catchment
Hydrology” and has taught dozens of isotope hydrology short-courses
over the past 20 years for the USGS and various federal, state, academic,
and international organizations.
MICHEL, Bob (650-329-4547, rlmichel@usgs.gov)
Chief of the Tritium Lab. Bob's main fields of interest are alpine and arid
zone hydrology. He is actively working on improving methods for collecting
sulfate on anion exchange resins, extracting the sulfate, and analyzing it
for 35S. This method has been applied to age-dating very young
waters in a number of locations and appears very promising. This
information combined with 34S data will improve our knowledge of
sulfur cycling in shallow systems.
ROLLOG,
Mark (650-329-4509, merollog@usgs.gov)
SILVA, Steve (650-329-4538, srsilva@usgs.gov)
Steve divides his time between methods development research, and several
research projects related to nutrient sources. Steve developed a new method
for concentrating nitrate on anion exchange resins in the field, and
analyzing this for 15N and 18O,
which was the central focus of our WEBB and NAWQA collaborations for ~ 7
years. Most of his current methods development research has been on
devising new ways to expand project analytical capabilities. He is
currently focused on tracing nitrate and POM sources in big river systems
using a multi-isotope approach.
YOUNG, Megan (650-329-4544, mbyoung@usgs.gov)
Megan is an isotope biogeochemist post-doc. She
received her Ph.D. from the Department of Geological & Environmental
Sciences at Stanford
University, working
in Dr. Adina Paytan’s Chemical Oceanography
lab. She is currently working on several different projects using multiple
stable isotopes to trace interactions between groundwater, surface water,
and anthropogenic nutrient inputs. Her primary research project is the isotope
component of a large CALFED study in the San Joaquin River area tracing
nutrient and organic matter sources through the river system and linking
these to low dissolved oxygen conditions in the Stockton Deep Water
Shipping Channel. Megan is also working on using oxygen isotopes of
dissolved phosphate to identify different phosphate sources in aquatic
ecosystems.
Past team members:
BEMIS, Bryan.
Bryan is an
isotope geochemist post-doc. His main interests are applying isotopic ratio
techniques to solving environmental problems, including using compound
specific isotopic ratio techniques for tracing sources of nutrients to the
base of aquatic food webs, food chain reconstructions, mercury
bioaccumulation, characterizing sources of DOC to wetlands, and correlating
THM formation potential with DOC type.
CHANG, Cecily.
Cecily divides her time between methods development work, and working with WEBB,
NAWQA, and other nitrate-related projects. Cecily developed an improved
method for collecting and analyzing nitrate for 18O from very
dilute, DOC rich waters that was used in many watershed nitrate studies.
She is currently focusing on nitrate sources and cycling in big river
systems.
DOCTOR, Dan (dhdoctor@usgs.gov)
Dan is a new NRC post-doc who is working on sources and cycling of carbon
(DIC and DOC) at one of the WEBB program sites (Sleepers River VT)
using our new automated TIC/TOC analyzer connected to an IsoPrime mass spectrometer.
ELLIOTT, Emily.
Emily is an isotope biogeochemist post-doc
working on our NYSERDA and EPRI-funded project on mapping the nitrate
isotopic composition of precipitation across the USA, and in particular the
state of NY. We are testing the
hypothesis that nitrate in precipitation derived from emissions from
vehicles and power plants might have distinguishable nitrate isotope
compositions.
RADYK, John.
John's main duties are to help with the processing of tritium samples,
assist with 35S procedures, distill waters from soils and plant
materials, log in samples, and keep track of the flux of tritium samples
through the project. John's main interest is the use of isotopes in
understanding arid zone hydrology.
WANKEL, Scott.
Scott divides his time between managing our laboratory database and helping
with method development and ongoing ecological projects, with his thesis
work (at Stanford, in collaboration with Adina Paytan).
He is especially interested in foodweb ecology at
the bottom of the foodweb. His dissertation
focuses on nutrient sources and cycling in Monterey Bay.
WHITE, Doug.
Doug is the lab manager of the Menlo Park stable isotope lab. He has been working in USGS isotope labs
for almost 30 years and is a master at keeping instruments running.
There is more
information about the "Isotope Tracers" project, including
project goals and recent publications, on the NRP homepage.
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