Professor of Biochemistry, Director of Research, Mark Trimmer’s research is aimed at unravelling the complexities of these life-sustaining cycles, from the pristine chalk streams of England to the tropical oceans. Using natural isotopes of these bio-elements to track their cycling across these diverse aquatic ecosystems and molecular techniques to probe their underlying microbial ecology. Mark also uses the longest running climate warming experiment (situated in Dorset) to characterise how warming alters the cycling of carbon and nitrogen, with a particular interest on how warming alters the ratios of the greenhouse gases CO2, CH4 and N2O emitted. This work on warming is supplementing a large research effort currently running around the Arctic Circle where, with Imperial Collage, where they are taking a ‘genes to ecosystems’ approach to help predict the effects of climate change on the key ecosystem service of bio-element cycling.
