MARINE BIOGEOCHEMISTRY LABORATORY
About the Lab
The Marine Biogeochemistry Laboratory is headed by Dr. Maria Lourdes San Diego-McGlone, a Full Professor at the UP Marine Science Institute. The research interest of the lab is to examine environmental stressors and their impact on coastal systems. Among these stressors are increased nutrients, ocean warming, and low pH.
The diagram on the right describes how these stressors are linked and their attendant impacts. Increased nutrients from anthropogenic activities (e.g. mariculture, domestic inputs) bring about eutrophication that can lead to blooms of algae that are either toxic or non-toxic, and fish kills. Decomposition of dead blooms and other organic matter will utilize/deplete dissolved oxygen resulting in anoxia or hypoxia and release carbon dioxide. Elevated carbon dioxide will decrease seawater pH and create acidic conditions that are detrimental to corals. Ocean warming will increase respiration rates, cause coral bleaching resulting in poor coral health.
Eutrophication
Poor coral health
Increased Respiration
More recent research involvement of the lab includes harmful algal bloom mitigation and toxin dynamics, coastal ecosystem response to anthropogenic stressors, and identifying coral species resilient to pH, temp, and nutrient stressors. Monitoring of water quality parameters (nutrients, chlorophyll, carbonate) continue in an area negatively affected by fish farming activities to characterize conditions, identify trends, and identify potential problems.