Paul G Matson

Paul G Matson
Oak Ridge National Laboratory | ORNL · Environmental Sciences Division

Ph.D. Marine Science

About

35
Publications
7,061
Reads
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1,675
Citations
Introduction
I am an aquatic scientist that uses oceanographic and ecological approaches to explore the effects of environmental drivers on organisms across multiple life stages. In particular, I am interested in understanding how species may respond to changing ocean climate. My previous research has included fieldwork in a wide range of coastal marine systems, including along California, Alaska, Washington, Peru, Chile, Baja California, French Polynesia, and Antarctica.
Additional affiliations
June 2018 - March 2020
Bowling Green State University
Position
  • PostDoc Position
April 2016 - May 2018
University of California, Santa Barbara
Position
  • PostDoc Position
June 2014 - March 2016
University of California, Santa Barbara
Position
  • PostDoc Position
Education
October 2007 - August 2012
University of California, Santa Barbara
Field of study
  • Marine Science
August 2003 - December 2006
San Diego State University
Field of study
  • Biology (emphasis in Ecology)
August 1997 - December 2001
The University of Arizona
Field of study
  • Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Publications

Publications (35)
Article
Human activities can be powerful drivers of ecosystem change within catchments. While most long‐term catchment studies have been conducted at pristine sites, such studies are less common from sites more impacted by human activity. The Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Biological Monitoring and Abatement Program (BMAP) was developed in the mid‐1980s t...
Article
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Reservoirs are a significant source of carbon (C) to the atmosphere, but their emission rates vary in space and time. We compared C emissions via diffusive and ebullitive pathways at several stations in six large hydropower reservoirs in the southeastern US that were previously sampled in summer 2012. We found that carbon dioxide (CO2) diffusion wa...
Article
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Because methane is a potent greenhouse gas (GHG), understanding controls on methane emissions from reservoirs is an important goal. Yet, reservoirs are complex ecosystems, and mechanisms by which reservoir operations influence methane emissions are poorly understood. In part, this is because emissions occur in ‘hot spots’ and ‘hot moments’. In this...
Article
Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from reservoirs are influenced by many factors, including the reservoir's morphology, watershed, and local climate. Failure to account for diversity in waterbody characteristics contributes to uncertainties in estimates of total waterbody GHG emissions and limits the ability to extrapolate patterns from one set of res...
Article
Full-text available
Marine coccolithophores are globally distributed, unicellular phytoplankton that produce nanopatterned, calcite biominerals (coccoliths). These biominerals are synthesized internally, deposited into an extracellular coccosphere, and routinely released into the external medium, where they profoundly affect the global carbon cycle. The cellular costs...
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Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from reservoirs have most often been evaluated on a global extent through areal scaling or linear-regression models. These models typically rely on a limited number of characteristics such as age, size, and average temperature to estimate per reservoir or areal flux. Such approaches may not be sufficient for describin...
Article
Quantifying phytoplankton composition is critical to predicting marine ecosystem structure and function. DNA meta‐barcoding and high‐performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) pigment analysis are two widely used methods for assessing phytoplankton composition; however, comparing their performance has been done only rarely. Here, we integrate DNA met...
Article
Coccolithophores are an important group of calcifying marine phytoplankton. Although coccolithophores are not silicified, some species exhibit a requirement for Si in the calcification process. These species also possess a novel protein (SITL) that resembles the SIT family of Si transporters found in diatoms. However, the nature of Si transport in...
Article
In the transition to low-carbon electricity, well-quantified estimates of carbon dynamics are needed to ensure that emissions reduction targets are achieved. We review the state of the science on carbon accounting for hydropower reservoirs and identify limitations and future solutions. Nearly all research on reservoir greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions...
Article
Environmental contamination due to human activities is a major concern, particularly for persistent chemicals. Within catchments, persistent chemicals linked to negative health outcomes such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) have great potential to be transported, through adsorption or biological uptake, with downstream locations acting as sinks...
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Inexpensive and sustainable methods are needed to reclaim nutrients from agricultural waste solutions for use as a fertilizer while decreasing nutrient runoff. Fe(III)–polysaccharide hydrogels are able to flocculate solids and absorb nutrients in liquid animal waste from Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs). Fe(III)–alginate beads absorbed 0....
Article
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The Maumee River is the primary source for nutrients fueling seasonal Microcystis‐dominated blooms in western Lake Erie's open waters though such blooms in the river are infrequent. The river also serves as source water for multiple public water systems and a large food services facility in northwest Ohio. On 20 September 2017, an unprecedented blo...
Article
Advances in high‐throughput DNA sequencing methods reveal the vast diversity of marine protists. Amplicon sequencing of “barcode” genes, such as the 18S small subunit ribosomal RNA gene (henceforth, 18S gene), is a cost‐effective and widely used genetic method for assessing the composition of marine protist communities. This method is now being app...
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Full-text available
This study examined diel shifts in metabolic functions of Microcystis spp. during a 48-h Lagrangian survey of a toxin-producing cyanobacterial bloom in western Lake Erie in the aftermath of the 2014 Toledo Water Crisis. Transcripts mapped to the genomes of recently sequenced lower Great Lakes Microcystis isolates showed distinct patterns of gene ex...
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Full-text available
This study examines an unprecedented bloom of Emiliania huxleyi along the California coast during the NE Pacific warm anomaly of 2014–2015. Observations of coccolithophore populations from microscopy and flow cytometry, surface current data derived from high‐frequency radar, and satellite ocean color imagery were used to track the population dynami...
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The species concept in marine phytoplankton is defined based on genomic, morphological, and functional properties. Reports of intraspecific diversity are widespread across major phytoplankton groups but the impacts of this variation on ecological and biogeochemical processes are often overlooked. Intraspecific diversity is well known within coccoli...
Article
The sea urchin Loxechinus albus is a benthic shallow water coastal herbivore and an exploited natural resource. This study evaluated the consequences of projected near-future ocean acidification (OA) and warming (OW) for small juveniles of this species. Individuals were exposed for 7 mo to contrasting pCO2 (∼400 and 1200 μatm) and temperature (∼16...
Article
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Ocean acidification is expected to have a major effect on the marine carbonate system over the next century, particularly in high latitude seas. Less appreciated is natural environmental variation within these systems, particularly in terms of pH, and how this natural variation may inform laboratory experiments. In this study, we deployed sensor-eq...
Data
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Ocean acidification, a reduction in ocean pH due to the uptake of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) by surface waters, has recently emerged as a research theme in marine biology due to an expected deleterious effect of altered seawater chemistry on calcification. Owing to the importance of larval survival and dispersal for the maintenance of adult...
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Full-text available
The Southern Ocean, a region that will be an ocean acidification hotspot in the near future, is home to a uniquely adapted fauna that includes a diversity of lightly-calcified invertebrates. We exposed the larvae of the echinoid Sterechinus neumayeri to environmental levels of CO(2) in McMurdo Sound (control: 410 µatm, Ω = 1.35) and mildly elevated...
Article
Full-text available
Ocean acidification (OA) is expected to have a major impact on marine species, particularly during early life-history stages. These effects appear to be species-specific and may include reduced survival, altered morphology, and depressed metabolism. However, less information is available regarding the bioenergetics of development under elevated CO(...
Article
Ocean acidification (OA) is expected to have a major impact on marine species, particularly during early life-history stages. These effects appear to be species-specific and may include reduced survival, altered morphology, and depressed metabolism. However, less information is available regarding the bioenergetics of development under elevated CO2...
Article
Full-text available
The effect of Ocean Acidification (OA) on marine biota is quasi-predictable at best. While perturbation studies, in the form of incubations under elevated pCO(2), reveal sensitivities and responses of individual species, one missing link in the OA story results from a chronic lack of pH data specific to a given species' natural habitat. Here, we pr...
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Full-text available
Although predictions suggest that ocean acidification will significantly impact polar oceans within 20–30 years, there is limited information regarding present-day pH dynamics of the Southern Ocean. Here, we present novel high-frequency observations of pH collected during spring of 2010 using SeaFET pH sensors at three locations under fast sea ice...
Article
Variation in ocean pH is a dynamic process occurring naturally in the upwelling zone of the California Current Large Marine Ecosystem. The nearshore carbonate chemistry is under-characterized and the physiology of local organisms may be under constant challenge from cyclical changes in pH and carbonate ion concentration of unexpectedly high magnitu...
Article
Settlement is an important process in the biphasic life histories of many marine invertebrates. Little is known regarding the fine-scale behavioral mechanisms for finding and attaching to a suitable substratum, particularly under conditions that may impose a potential challenge, such as flow. In this study, we examined the settlement behavior of cy...
Article
Ocean acidification, a reduction in ocean pH due to the uptake of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) by surface waters, has recently emerged as a research theme in marine biology due to an expected deleterious effect of altered seawater chemistry on calcification. Owing to the importance of larval survival and dispersal for the maintenance of adult...
Article
Full-text available
Environmental factors have long been shown to influence species distributions, with range limits often resulting from environmental stressors exceeding organism tolerances. However, these abiotic factors may differentially affect species with multiple life-history stages. Between September 2004 and January 2006, the roles of temperature and nutrien...
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Full-text available
Morphological variation is common in kelps (Phaeophyceae, Laminariales) and often results from differences in environ-mental conditions. Stipe hollowing, in particular, occurs in several kelp species worldwide but to date has been investigated for only a few species and primarily at local scales. Here we describe the patterns of stipe hollowing bot...
Article
Full-text available
We conducted swimming performance tests on native and nonnative fishes commonly found in Arizona streams to evaluate the extent of differences in swimming ability among species. Fishes with similar mean lengths were subjected to stepwise increases in water velocity in a laboratory swim tunnel until fish could no longer maintain position. Nonnative...
Article
Thesis (M.S.)-- San Diego State University, 2006. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 41-46).

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