What attracted you to the field of ocean acidification?

I first took an oceanography course during my undergraduate at Lewis & Clark College, and I was so fascinated by the different physical and chemical processes going on all the time in the oceans that I had never learned about. Then, in the last semester of my master’s I was able to work at the Institute of Marine Research (Havforskningsinstituttet) in Tromsø, Norway with two oceanographers who were studying inorganic carbon chemistry in the Southern Ocean and I just really fell in love with learning about it. It set me down the path of pursuing academia and opportunities relating to the inorganic carbon system, which is an area that has such important implications for our fisheries, many carbonate creatures, as well as the climate, and general health of our oceans.

What are some of the questions you hope to tackle during your PhD?

One big focus of my PhD is attempting to quantify the sea-air CO2 flux in the nearshore lagoons around the North Coast of Alaska. It’s really cool because we can estimate whether carbon dioxide is being sequestered from the atmosphere in these areas, or if the oceans are off gassing it back out to the atmosphere. These estimations can help us understand the conditions of the water in these productive areas, and better inform our carbon budgets on smaller and larger scales. One of my other projects investigates the inorganic carbon chemistry in the water column around St. Lawrence Island so that we can better understand the impact of the chemistry of the water on different crab species, and assess whether the ocean is moving towards becoming corrosive to carbonate building creatures such as coral and shellfish. 

Rylie in Tromso, Norway during her masters research.

What were you looking for in a program, and what’s life like as a first semester PhD student?

I really wanted my PhD to revolve around inorganic carbon chemistry specifically in polar regions, so that I could continue to build on what I learned working on my research in Tromsø. It was so perfect when I was connected to my supervisor at University of Alaska Fairbanks, who was working on exactly the data I am interested in, and I feel really thankful that I get to work on the type of projects that excite me. I am loving life as a first semester PhD student! My classes have been so interesting and really fun, and the professors have been very attentive. I was only 6 months out of my master’s degree when I began the PhD at UAF, but it has been such a joy to be back in the classroom, and connecting with driven and awesome students, researchers, and professors.

What are your hopes as you think about the long term of ocean acidification and society?

This is a hard one, but I guess that I hope for an increase in awareness of what is going on in our oceans with continued carbon dioxide emissions. I think it can become much more real if you can look at and understand the process of carbon dioxide sequestration into the oceans, and how this will continue to affect the ecosystems, fisheries, and carbonate building creatures. I am hopeful and optimistic in human’s ability to be problem solvers and have great ingenuity, but the earlier we can start tackling these issues the better. I have to believe that the more people that care, the greater our chances of solving for and slowing down the effects of these processes will be.