My main scientific interests are the export production, transport, and sedimentation of biogenic carbonate particles onto the deep seafloor and the effect of climate change on the ecology of specific marine organisms. My research is focused on one of the most important pelagic calcifiers, coccolithophores, present in the ocean since the Mesozoic (about 220 million years ago-Late Triassic). These unicellular phytoplankton differ from all other phytoplankton in that they surround themselves with calcium carbonate structures called coccoliths. Integration of the carbonate chemistry and ecology of these organisms provides proxies for past biological productivity, surface water historv, and intermediate water dynamics.
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