Dr. Julia Diaz
Associate Professor, UCSD Scripps, Biological Oceanography, Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry
Lab Website

Phosphorus biogeochemistry in the California Current Ecosystem

Tuesday, April 29
11:30 AM
AHF 153 (Torrey Webb Room)

Abstract: The California Current Ecosystem (CCE) is a highly productive region characterized by strong coastal upwelling.  Phytoplankton communities in the CCE typically grow and bloom until the supply of nitrogen and/or iron becomes limiting, whereas the supply of phosphorus tends to remain sufficient.  Despite the lack of primary or co-limitation by phosphorus, however, we find that phosphorus is dynamically cycled by microbial communities in the CCE.  In this talk, I will describe my lab’s recent field work in the CCE, which highlights multiple aspects of dynamic phosphorus cycling in this relatively phosphorus-replete system, using bulk and compound-specific geochemical data, enzyme activity measurements, transcriptomics, and proteomics.