People

My PhD research explores the terrestrial sulfur cycle along natural gradients. I am investigating the impact of several factors (climate, topography, landscape age and parent material) on soil sulfur. I use stable sulfur isotopes as tracers of sulfur sources and in-soil processes. My work also explores the interactions between the sulfur cycle and those of carbon and nitrogen. I collected samples from the rainforest of Puerto Rico, from the marine terraces at Santa Cruz, CA, and from the Atacama Desert and the Andes in Chile. In addition, I used archived samples from Tanzania and various sites in the US. All together, these sites form a rainfall gradient that ranges from <2 mm to >4000 mm of mean annual precipitation. This broad gradient allows for understanding the effects of climate on sulfur abundance and distribution in terrestrial ecosystems.