Biogeochemistry Across Boundaries
About
The B.A.B. Lab at VIMS and W&M focuses on studying the processes (e.g., primary production, scavenging, degradation) that modulate trace element and organic carbon biogeochemistry across freshwater systems, coastal environments and the open ocean to gain a comprehensive understating of their cycling, fluxes, source-to-sink characterization and their role in the ecosystem.
News
Take a look at what is going on at B.A.B. Lab
🎉🎉A New York Times article showcasing our recent fieldwork has been published. Last Spring (2025), the B.A.B. Lab team had the opportunity to collaborate with Nicholas Foukal (lead PI; Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, USA) to sample key Arctic boundary currents, including the East Greenland Current (EGC) and the East Greenland Coastal Current (EGCC), along the Northeast Greenland Coast.
🎉🎉The new paper, lead by collaborator Birgit Rogalla, “Modeling Dissolved Pb Concentrations in the Western Arctic Ocean: The Continued Legacy of Anthropogenic Pollution” has been published. This study presents a quantification of the controls on ocean dissolved Pb (dPb) concentrations in the isolated western Arctic Ocean with a novel three-dimensional dPb model and highlights the use of dPb to trace extension pathways of warm Atlantic Water into Baffin Bay.
🎉🎉 Welcome Athira Chakkalaparambil Rajendran and Victoria Grisson, the newest members of the B.A.B. Lab! This Fall, they will be starting their respective Ph.D. and M.S. programs.
🎉🎉 Our new paper “Shelf-basin connectivity drives dissolved Fe and Mn distributions in the western Arctic Ocean: A synoptic view into polar trace metal cycling” has been published. This paper showcases the grand effort and success of GEOTRACES international program in pursuing an unprecedent study on trace element biogeochemistry in the Arctic Ocean.
🎉🎉Our new paper “Control of particulate manganese (Mn) cycling in halocline Arctic Ocean waters by putative Mn‐oxidizing bacterial dynamics” has been published. This large-scale field study combines trace element analysis with microbial data to unravel the geochemistry of Mn in the Canadian Arctic Ocean.
