Joseph Vallino
Associate Scientist, MBLAssistant Professor (MBL) Brown University
|
Joseph VallinoAssociate Scientist, MBLAssistant Professor (MBL) Brown University |
|
Reseach interests at the Ecosystems Center of the Marine Biological Laboratory
My research emphasis concerns whole ecosystem chemistry
associated with biological structure synthesis and energy utilization
that underlies the development of living systems. Since the majority
of metabolic diversity lies almost entirely within microorganisms,
my investigations currently target microbial systems, which have the
added benefit of fast characteristic timescales that can be studied
in the laboratory. The question I am most concerned with is what
governs the expression of metabolic function (such as photosynthesis,
methanogenesis, nitrogen fixation, etc) that is orchestrated by
the entire microbial consortium? Are the rates of ecosystem
metabolic reactions governed by just happenstance depending on
which organisms are present, or is the overall chemistry of the
system determined by fundamental principles? Current theories in
non-equilibrium thermodynamics support the conjecture that systems
organize to maximize entropy production (MEP). I am currently
exploring whether MEP can be used to describe microbial biogeochemistry
using laboratory microcosms as experimental systems.
While the microcosm experiments are useful for testing new theories, such as MEP, ultimately, knowledge obtained from laboratory-based research is used to develop more robust applied biogeochemistry models. The biogeochemistry models are coupled with 1D, 2D and 3D hydrodynamic models to describe how ecosystems utilize and process environmental resources. I use data assimilation techniques to calibrate and test these large-scale models against observations and experiments from field-based research projects. The Plum Island Ecosystems Long Term Ecological Research Program provides an excellent means to test new ideas and models derived from them.