Tyler Cyronak
Georgia Southern University, GA·Earth & Environmental Science
Alkalinity is seawater's ability to neutralize acids, such as the acid that forms when carbon dioxide from the air dissolves in the ocean. It controls how much carbon dioxide the ocean can absorb or release, so it is a key part of the global carbon cycle.
- Fields
Earth & Environmental Science
Ecology & Evolution
Chemistry
- Topics
seagrass
alkalinity
ocean carbon cycle
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Sep 2027
What they work on
- Quantify how much total alkalinity flows out of sediments in two contrasting seagrass ecosystems, using field and laboratory chamber incubations and pore water analyses.
- Identify the biogeochemical processes that control alkalinity production in seagrass sediments, using microelectrode profiling to map chemistry at fine scale with depth.
- Test how enhanced silicate weathering, a proposed way to raise ocean alkalinity and pull carbon dioxide from the air, changes alkalinity production in seagrass sediments.
- Train U.S. graduate students in transdisciplinary coral reef science through field institutes at the Daintree Rainforest and Lizard Island Research Station, including guided independent research projects on the Great Barrier Reef.
More about the research
Coastal ecosystems with plants, such as seagrass meadows, mangroves and tidal marshes, may supply a lot of alkalinity to coastal waters, but nobody yet knows how much. That gap matters even more now that some proposed climate technologies aim to boost ocean alkalinity on purpose. The PI's grants combine field and lab chemistry on seagrass meadows with an international training program in coral reef science.
Why it matters
Coastal communities, climate policymakers and companies developing ocean-based carbon removal need to know how much carbon dioxide coastal waters can absorb, and whether adding alkalinity is safe and effective. Measuring alkalinity production in seagrass meadows could improve ocean and global carbon budgets and inform decisions on these technologies. Training reef scientists across disciplines could strengthen the science behind coral reef conservation and policy.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Collaborative Research: Assessing the role of seagrass biogeochemistry and sedimentary alkalinity production in coastal carbon cycling and marine carbon dioxide removal strategies
NSF · Oct 2024 – Sep 2027
IRES Track II: Systems-based transdisciplinary approaches to coral reef science and conservation
NSF · Jan 2023 – Sep 2026
Closest labs
Alexandra Bijak
William & Mary, VA·Ecology & Evolution
Test how the strength and direction of seagrass-bivalve interactions change with seagrass species and bivalve type, by adding bivalves to meadows dominated by early-successional versus climax seagrasses and measuring growth of both.
Paul Montagna
Texas A & M University-Corpus Christi, TX·Earth & Environmental Science
Test whether reduced freshwater runoff lowers alkalinity production in estuarine sediments by changing rates of oxygen-free microbial respiration, by comparing three northwestern Gulf of Mexico estuaries that differ in freshwater input.
Catherine Clark
Western Washington University, WA·Earth & Environmental Science
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.
The school
Georgia Southern University: 3 labs on PI Pages, $46M a year on research, 70 research doctorates a year.
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