Catherine Clark
Western Washington University, WA·Earth & Environmental Science
Coastal plants such as salt-marsh grasses and seagrasses capture and store large amounts of carbon, called blue carbon. Some of that carbon leaks into the water as dissolved organic matter (DOM), a mix of large, complex carbon molecules released as plant material breaks down.
- Fields
Earth & Environmental Science
Chemistry
Ecology & Evolution
- Topics
blue carbon
dissolved organic matter
dissolved organic carbon
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jul 2027
What they work on
- Measure the composition and amount of dissolved organic matter (DOM) exported from a salt marsh into the Padilla Bay estuary across tidal cycles and seasons, using spectroscopy, dissolved organic carbon and water-flow measurements.
- Determine how sunlight-driven and microbial processes transform marsh-derived DOM, and identify its sources with carbon-13 stable isotope analysis of waters, sediment pore waters and plant leachates.
- Assess how eelgrass beds and mudflats modify carbon flow in the estuary, and establish baseline DOM measurements in degraded marshes slated for restoration.
More about the research
DOM is part of the global carbon cycle, but scientists know little about its different types or how it changes over time. This collaborative project asks how coastal wetlands create, alter, store and export DOM.
Why it matters
Coastal managers planning wetland restoration need to know how marshes and seagrass beds store and release carbon. Baseline measurements from degraded Padilla Bay marshes awaiting restoration could help track whether restoration changes carbon flow. Better accounting of blue carbon could also improve predictions of how climate change and human activity affect coastal ecosystems.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Leanne Powers
SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, NY·Chemistry
Measure apparent quantum yields, meaning how efficiently absorbed sunlight produces reactive species, for triplet DOM, singlet oxygen, superoxide, hydrogen peroxide and hydroxyl radical from field DOM and model compounds such as lignin, tannins and flavonoids.
James Morris
University of South Carolina-Columbia, SC·Ecology & Evolution
Test whether salt marsh elevation gain is driven by belowground biomass production of Spartina alterniflora and scales with net ecosystem production, using long-term North Inlet measurements.
Samantha Chapman
Villanova University, PA·Ecology & Evolution
Test whether excess nitrogen loading disrupts the soil accumulation that lets coastal wetlands keep up with sea level rise, using experimental nitrogen additions at creekside and interior field plots.
The school
Western Washington University: 3 labs on PI Pages, $23M a year on research, 15 research doctorates a year.
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