Sep 2026: TRACER Lab preprint available for Arctic Thorium and export work
The Arctic is one of the most rapidly changing regions of the global ocean. Unfortunately, it is difficult to study surface conditions in the Arctic Ocean because ice and cloud-cover often block satellites from collecting data. Find out what is happening with sinking particles and the carbon cycle under the ice! This TRACER lab work (now under peer review with GBC) combines measurements from two 2015 GEOTRACES expeditions and three decades of additional ship-based estimates.
July 2026: Sampling in the Gulf of Maine
The TRACER lab took its research to sea this summer on a four-day cruise in the Gulf of Maine aboard the R/V Hugh R. Sharp. Our team collected seawater and particle samples to investigate how microplastics interact with naturally occurring radioactive elements in the ocean.
Nov 2025: Collaborative work by Dalhousie’s Madeline Healy and the Kienast Group continues the Bedford Basin story.
Update – Congratulations Madeline on a successful defense and your WHOI postdoc!
Oct 2025: Sampling in the Mid-Atlantic Bight
The TRACER lab’s first voyage is officially complete! We joined the Kessler group for a week long cruise of opportunity out of Delaware Bay aboard the R/V Hugh R. Sharp. We collected particulate samples on filters, with the goal of investigating both plastics and marine organic matter. When combined with our radioisotope measurements, these samples will help us estimate fluxes of carbon and plastics in marine environments.
Apr 2025: Arctic GEOTRACES synthesis published looking at biogeochemical cycling in the upper halocline
Laura Whitmore of UAF brings together work from more than 20 scientists in this GBC publication.
Mar 2025: More joint GEOTRACES research from the North Pacific published by early career scientist Neil Redmond
The Hayes Group observed a strong relationship between the slope of dissolved 230Th concentration‐depth profiles and suspended particle matter inventory in the upper‐mid water column along a transect from Alaska to Tahiti. This reinforced the view that biogenic particle mass flux sets the background 230Th distribution in open ocean settings but hydrothermal plumes can also act as a regional boundary sink of 230Th.
March 2024: Joint GEOTRACES research from the Pacific Ocean published by early career scientist Nicole Buckley
The TRACER Lab gets out on Canandaigua Lake Fall 2023
Many thanks to Dr. Pasternack for hosting us!
Oct 2023: Black et al. (2023) ‘Insights into constraining coastal carbon export from radioisotopes’ is out in FIMS!
Oct 2022: Joint GEOTRACES research from the North Pacific published by early career scientist Nathan Kemnitz
Sep 2022: Our collaborative work on the recycling of dissolved Fe in the Pacific Ocean has been published
