Ocean Ecology and Biogeochemistry (OEB) is the study of the ocean's biological, chemical, and geological processes, and their interplay. Most broadly, Ocean Ecology and Biogeochemistry is concerned with the structure and function of ecosystems across space and time, including feedbacks between land, atmosphere and ocean. Research backgrounds of our faculty include paleo-reconstruction, population and community ecology, biogeochemical cycling, atmospheric sciences, optics, acoustics, remote sensing, hydrology, deep-biosphere, and climate science. This diversity provides opportunities to break down traditional disciplinary boundaries and explore new lines of research, and to provide students with basic core knowledge of the traditional disciplines while encouraging them to work more closely at disciplinary interfaces in an earth system science context.
OEB Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Document Version 1 March 5, 2021 (PDF on Box)
Teaching and Research Faculty
Andrew Barnard, Kim Bernard, Ed Brook, Kristen Buck, Lorenzo Ciannelli, Byron Crump, Emily Eidam, Jennifer Fehrenbacher, Miguel Goñi, Burke Hales, Brian Haley, Laurie Juranek, Maria Kavanaugh, Astrid Leitner, Ricardo Letelier, Erin McParland, Clare Reimers, Andreas Schmittner, Alyssa Shiel, Yvette Spitz, Andrew Thurber, George Waldbusser, James Watson
Ocean Ecology and Biogeochemistry Seminar
Fridays from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. in Burt 193
Spring Term 2026
Information will be updated as more becomes available.
- April 3, Rob Campbell (Prince William Sound Science Center), Warming, Heat Waves and Ice Mass Declines in Prince William Sound: Recent Changes in Near-Surface Oceanography and Productivity
- April 10, De'Marcus Robinson (Florida A&M), Changing Ocean Chemistry: Impacts of Ocean Deoxygenation and Acidification from benthic Iron Fluxes to Fisheries
- April 13, Emmanuel Boss (University of Maine), [Special Bonus seminar],
Title: A perspective on phytoplankton and their dynamics you will not likely see in your textbooks
Abstract: In this talk I will argue that oceanographers, as observed in our textbooks and in papers, have many misconceptions with respect to phytoplankton. These span from a land centric view of ocean 'deserts' and 'blooms', to a euphotic depth quantified by 1% of surface light and the notion that phytoplankton play a crucial role in sequestering CO2 from today's atmosphere. Finally, if we think about ocean ecosystems from an evolutionary perspective, carbon sequestration can be viewed as an inefficiency the ecosystem likely fights against rather than a service.
Zoom connection details
- April 17, Double header seminar: 1) Miguel Goñi (OSU CEOAS), Introduction to Field Oceanography – a decade of undergraduate students at sea; and 2) CEOAS Oceanography Undergrad Drew Moreland, Student-led oceanographic measurements of surface waters from southern California basins aboard RV Sally Ride.
- April 24, Julien Middleton (UCSB),
Title: Novel pFe-δ30Si interactions at four hydrothermal systems(co-authors Benjamin Twining, Jessica Fitzsimmons, Kristie Dick, Mark Holzer, Janice Jones, & Mark A. Brzezinski)
Abstract: Silicon isotopes are used for a variety of applications, including understanding marine silicifier (paleo)productivity, global (reverse-)weathering, and signatures of early life on earth. Current understanding assumes biological fractionation of silicon isotopes in productive surface waters and large-scale ocean overturning govern modern oceanic silicon isotope distributions. Here, we discuss the fractionation of silicon onto particulate iron oxyhydroxides within a mid-water hydrothermal plume and the implications of δ30Si-pFe cycling in the modern ocean. These signatures were observed in δ30Si data collected during the GEOTRACES GP17OCE transect, which crossed a hydrothermal plume originating at the Pacific-Antarctic Ridge near 150 °W and radiating into the deep Southern Ocean. Using particulate iron data collected during the same cruise, we show that the magnitude of δ30Si fractionation across iron oxide concentration gradients closely agrees with experimentally determined magnitudes of δ30Si fractionation onto common hydrothermal iron oxides. These signatures were also found to occur at three other hydrothermal sites. The visibility of these signatures, despite small relative changes in the high [Si(OH)4] found in the deep ocean, suggests that this process may impact silicon isotope distributions, potentially affecting δ30Si ultimately recorded within marine sediments. The findings presented suggest a significant addition to the controls on modern oceanic Si cycling and represents a potential paradigm shift in our understand of the modern marine iron cycle. -
May 1, Erin Peck (University of Rhode Island),
Title: Salt marsh morphodynamics and blue carbon burial
- May 8, Ed Dever (OSU CEOAS), OOI marine carbonate measurements
- May 15, Dick Feeley (NOAA PMEL), title forthcoming
- May 22, open
- May 29, Erin McParland (OSU CEOAS), Something about microbes and metabolites and rates (practice talk for Marine Microbes GRC)
- June 5, Marie Schaedel (OSU CAS), title forthcoming
- June 12, Kim Bernard (OSU CEOAS), Under pressure and in hot water: First evidence of reproductive Antarctic krill at a deep-sea hydrothermal vent.