Graduate student Yongcheng Ji (PhD 2006; MAKE PDF LINK) explored the relationship between the unusually large uptake of Zn by the microbial assemblage in the lake and the extreme limitation of primary production by phosphorus. Graduate student Eleni Anagnostou (MS 2005; now a PhD student) developed and applied a new method for detecting very low nanomolar concentrations of dissolved inorganic P, while RIAL lab manager Paul Field and PI Sherrell found ways to improve the sensitivity of ICP-MS for measuring low concentrations of total dissolved P (including dissolved organic P). With these methods, we are gaining an understanding of P dynamics in large lakes when there is very little of it available to the biota. These findings help to shed light on P cycling in the oligotrophic ocean.
Figure 1: Rob Sherrell and Rutgers graduate student Yongcheng Ji near Devil's Island, Lake Superior |
Figure 2: Rob Sherrell (in red) with
postdoc Sanjeev Kumar and technician Jason Agnich (U. Minn.) aborad the R/V Blue Heron outside
Duluth, MN.
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Figure 3: Rutgers graduate student Eleni Anagnostou sampling uncontaminated surface water (tube over pulley behind)
near the Apostle Islands, Lake Superior |
Figure 4: Erosion of water caves in very old sedimentary
rocks on Devil's Island, Lake Superior
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