Welcome
Research in the Ward laboratory concerns the marine and global nitrogen cycle, using molecular biological investigations of marine bacteria and bacterial processes (especially nitrification and denitrification), and measuring the rates of N transformation processes using various isotope approaches. We have ongoing research in the following areas:
- Nitrogen cycling (nitrification, denitrification, anammox, etc.) in several suboxic zones of the world ocean (Arabian Sea, Eastern Tropical North and South Pacific) and in Chesapeake Bay, Great Sippewissett Salt Marsh, etc.
- Nitrogen assimilation by phytoplankton and functional diversity of eukaryotic phytoplankton in the world ocean
- Diversity of functional guilds of bacteria involved in the nitrogen cycle of aquatic systems
Please contact us for more information and for queries about undergraduate, graduate and post doctoral research opportunities.
News - 2012
Investigating the role of eukaryotic phytoplankton in carbon and nitrogen cycling in the Sargasso Sea
The Ward and Sigman lab groups’ recent four-day research cruise to the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study (BATS) site in the Northwestern Sargasso Sea complements an earlier winter cruise as part of a collaborative project entitled “Functional diversity of marine eukaryotic phytoplankton and their contributions to C and N cycling.”
Control of Denitrification and Anammox in the Oxygen Deficient Waters Research Cruise
Members of the Ward lab group participated in a month-long research cruise in Spring 2012 in the Eastern Tropical North Pacific (ETNP) as part their ongoing project entitled “Control of Denitrification and Anammox in the Oxygen Deficient Waters of the Eastern Tropical North and South Pacific.