Advancing our understanding of continental to global patterns in surface and groundwaters, infrastructure, and distribution systems.
About My Research
Our work constantly seeks to advance our understanding of and ability to study the water cycle using water isotopes. We do this through a combination of new data production, promotion and support for data sharing within the research community, and development of novel applications and data analysis methods. Working with Picarro analyzers, our SPATIAL group discovered a novel isotopic 'fingerprint' of water vapor emitted during combustion of carbon-based fuels, launching new opportunities to study emissions and their impact of meteorology and atmospheric chemistry. We documented and described continental to global patterns in surface and groundwaters, and developed new applications of isotopes in the study of water infrastructure and distribution systems. We support open science by serving as an analytical lab for the National Ecological Observatory Network, and have developed databases and software supporting new models for processing and sharing water isotope data from Picarro's analyzers. And by documenting isotope values of human drinking water (CRDS) and tooth enamel (IRMS) we are advancing the application of isotopes in human forensic identification, including the mission to identify and repatriate remains of US Armed Service members.
How Picarro Analyzers Helped
Picarro's analyzers have been a game changer in water isotope science in two fundamental ways. First, they have dramatically increased the accessibility of routine water isotope measurements. The high throughput, stability, and relatively low cost of operation for the analyzers, combined with the outstanding data quality, mean that labs like ours are able to process 2-4 times as many samples for a given project as would be feasible using mass spectrometry. So much of our work (and that of many others) today is driven by access to large volumes of data that reveal spatiotemporal patterns, multivariate responses, and nuances in isotope distributions, that the increased throughput supported by CRDS analyzers is now a fundamental driver of scientific progress. Second, these analyzers have made opened the doors for new types of analyses and challenging substrates. The two most obvious examples are δ17O analysis, which was previously a technically challenging and laborious measurement made only in a handful of research labs, and water vapor isotope analyses. Our own work on water vapor of combustion was enabled by our ability to continuously monitor atmospheric vapor isotope ratios using CRDS, which was entirely infeasible using traditional methods. This ability also plays a key role in one of our ongoing projects, which leverages water vapor isotope data being gathered at ~20 sites across the USA by the NEON program, and these new data are likely to continue to support discovery science for years to come.