What we do in the Joye Group…

Biogeochemistry is an interdisciplinary science that examines how biological processes mediate the geological and chemical dynamics of the Earth's hydrosphere and lithosphere. The integrative nature of biogeochemical research requires application of tools from different disciplines, including: microbiology, biochemistry, analytical chemistry, geochemistry, ecology, hydrology, mathematics, physics and many others.

Molecular Biological studies of microbial communities using DNA, RNA or protein derived information reveal information about microbial community structure and potential metabolic activity.

By combining biogeochemistry and molecular biological approaches, we can document the microbial community composition (which microbes are there?) and elucidate their metabolic potential (what processes can they mediate?) as well as their actual activity (what processes are they mediating?).

A fundamental challenge for environmental scientists is to identify and understand the factors that regulate rates of biogeochemical processes. This really means understanding the factors that regulate microbial community composition and microbial activity as the latter reflects the active portion of the microbial community.  Evaluating variations in microbial community structure and in rates of biogeochemical processes provides the information needed to begin to identify links between environmental forcing functions, microbial structure and microbial community function. Such information will permit us to begin to develop mechanistic models of how biogeochemical cycles will respond to global change.

Research conducted by Joye's group examines the biogeochemical cycling of nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus), dissolved gases (dinitrogen, nitrous oxide, oxygen, methane, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen), trace metals (iron and manganese), carbon, and sulfur in a variety of systems, ranging from saline lakes to temperate and tropical coastal environments to deep ocean sediments and brines to Antarctic lakes. Several projects include parallel studies of biogeochemical and molecular ecological dynamics with the aim of identifying fundamental feedbacks between environmental variables, microbial community composition and microbial activity.