Robert Campbell
University of Rhode Island, RI·Earth & Environmental Science
The Siberian Arctic is changing fast. More river water is flowing into the sea, water masses are shifting, and pressure from human activity is varying.
- Fields
Earth & Environmental Science
Ecology & Evolution
Microbiology & Immunology
- Topics
Arctic Ocean
Siberian Arctic
Laptev Sea
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through May 2027
What they work on
- Assess the sources and sinks of trace metals (iron, manganese, copper, nickel, cadmium, zinc, lead) and microplastics in the East Siberian and Laptev seas, including the role of river input and sea ice.
- Describe bacterial and phytoplankton species composition and metabolism across salinity regimes, measuring active cell counts and net microbial productivity and respiration.
- Assess phytoplankton taxonomic composition, physiological health and productivity using pigment measurements from full water column sampling on the NABOS cruise.
- Quantify microbial colonization of microplastics and the ingestion of microplastics by zooplankton in Siberian Arctic waters.
More about the research
This collaborative project asks how these changes affect the ocean's chemistry and its smallest living things, and through them the ecosystem's productivity. It links small-scale chemistry, specifically trace metals and microplastics (MPs), with the base of the food web: phytoplankton, zooplankton, and the "microbial loop," in which bacteria recycle organic matter.
Why it matters
Arctic coastal seas are taking in more river water and pollution. Full water column data on trace metals, microplastics and plankton could clarify how these changes affect productivity at the base of the Arctic food web. That information could support assessments of the ecosystem services these seas provide.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Nicole Millette
William & Mary, VA·Ecology & Evolution
Measure how much carbon eight mixotroph species get from photosynthesis versus prey ingestion under different environmental conditions, using isotopic labelling incubation experiments.
Yuan Gao
Rutgers University-Newark, NJ·Earth & Environmental Science
Determine aerosol composition and mineral content over the Amundsen Sea and trace the sources of dust and trace elements such as iron, aluminum, and zinc, using ICPMS, electron microscopy, and air-mass back-trajectory cluster analysis.
Gregory Cutter
Old Dominion University, VA·Earth & Environmental Science
Quantify the total inventory of dissolved organic sulfur (DOS), trace carbon-bound sulfur compounds, across the Pacific Ocean using archived samples from over 100 sites between Alaska and Antarctica.
The school
University of Rhode Island: 9 labs on PI Pages, $137M a year on research, 93 research doctorates a year.
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