Dr. Robert Spencer
Research in my laboratory is focused on understanding the chemical composition of Earth’s major carbon reservoirs (soils, sediments and dissolved organic matter (DOM) in marine and terrestrial ecosystems), and how this controls movement between these reservoirs and the atmosphere. These major reservoirs can vary between carbon dioxide source or sink with respect to the atmosphere in a changing climate and due to anthropogenic impacts. We work across a range of scales from global to molecular level and a wide variety of environments from the Arctic to the tropics. Application and development of a range of analytical techniques is undertaken in the laboratory and field centered on organic geochemistry, but encompassing methodology from oceanography, hydrology, microbiology and soil science.
