| Eric Galbraith |
Research Associate
Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences
Sayre Hall, Forrestal Campus
Princeton University
Princeton, NJ 08544
t: 609-258-2906
egalbrai@ princeton.edu
Research Interests
I work as a postdoc in the research group of Jorge Sarmiento. I am interested in the global cycling of biologically active elements in the ocean, and how this relates to climate change. I am particularly interested in interactions between the physical circulation and the distributions of oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, silicon and phosphorus in the ocean interior. Understanding these distributions, and how they change over time, can illuminate the stabilizing feedbacks that maintain the oceanic environment for marine life. In addition, they can help us predict the impacts of future climate change.
I take two parallel approaches to these problems. First, I study marine sediment cores, which provide archives of ocean variability on millennial timescales. Second, I use numerical models of the ocean-atmosphere system to gain quantitative and mechanistic insight into processes that can explain the often-enigmatic sedimentary records.
I am currently working with the climate modeling group at the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) on an effort to develop a global, coupled climate model with no flux adjustments and prognostic terrestrial and marine ecosystems, suitable for multi-centennial experiments.
Publications
PhD Thesis
Interactions between climate and the marine nitrogen cycle on glacial-interglacial timescales (University of British Columbia, February, 2006).
Refereed Papers
Galbraith, Eric D, Kienast, Markus, Jaccard, Samuel L, Pedersen, Tom F, Brunelle, Brigitte G and Kiefer, Thorsten, accepted. Consistent relationship between global climate and surface nitrate utilization in western Subarctic Pacific throughout last 500 ky. Paleoceanography.
Galbraith, Eric D, Jaccard, Samuel L, Pedersen, Tom F, Sigman, Daniel M, Haug, Gerald H, Cook, Mea, Southon, John and Francois, Roger, 2007. Carbon dioxide release from the North Pacific abyss during the last deglaciation. Nature, October 18.
Schmittner, Andreas, Oschlies, Andreas, Matthews, H. Damon and Galbraith, Eric D, in press. Future changes in climate, ocean circulation, ecosystems and biogeochemical cycling simulated for a business-as-usual CO2 emission scenario until year 4000 AD. Global Biogeochemical Cycles.
Schmittner, Andreas, Galbraith, Eric, Hostetler, Steven, Pedersen, Tom and Zhang, Rong, 2007. Large fluctuations of dissolved oxygen in the Indian and Pacific Oceans during Dansgaard-Oeschger oscillations caused by variations in North Atlantic deep water subduction. Paleoceanography 22, doi 10.1029/2006PA001384.
Galbraith, Eric D, Kienast, Markus, Pedersen, Tom F and Calvert, Stephen E, 2004. Glacial-interglacial modulation of the marine nitrogen cycle by oxygen supply to intermediate waters. Paleoceanography, 19, doi.1029/2003PA001000.
Meissner, Katrin, Galbraith, Eric D, and Voelker, Christoph, 2005. Denitrification under glacial and interglacial conditions: a physical approach. Paleoceanography, 20, doi 10.1029/2004PA001083.
Book Chapters
Galbraith, Eric D, Sigman, Daniel, Robinson, Rebecca S and Pedersen, Tom F. Past changes in the marine nitrogen cycle. In Nitrogen in the Marine Environment, 2nd edition; Capone, D., Bronk, D., Mulholland, M. and Carpenter, E. (eds.), In press. (Invited chapter)
Conference presentations
Galbraith, Eric and Sarmiento, Jorge. The Antarctic circumpolar nutrient pump and a bipolar nutrient seesaw. International Conference on Paleoceanography, Shanghai, China, Septmeber 2007. (Poster)
Galbraith, Eric and Sarmiento, Jorge. A bipolar nutrient seesaw hypothesis. Ocean Controls in Abrupt Climate Change, Obergurgl, Austria, 2007. (Talk)
Galbraith, Eric, Jaccard, Samuel, Pedersen, Tom, Sigman, Daniel, Haug, Gerald, Cook, Mea and Southon, John. Radiocarbon depletion in the glacial North Pacific Abyss, and the deglacial ventilation increase. American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, San Francisco, CA, December 2006. (Solicited talk)
Galbraith, Eric, Jaccard, Samuel, Pedersen, Tom, Sigman, Daniel, Haug, Gerald, Cook, Mea and Southon, John. Dissipation of a deep, poorly ventilated North Pacific water mass during the last deglaciation. Ocean Carbon Biogeochemistry Workshop, Woods Hole, MA, July 2006. (Poster)
Galbraith, Eric, Schmittner, Andreas and Pedersen, Tom (2005). Stabilization of thermocline oxygen minima by denitrification/nitrogen-fixation feedbacks, and sensitivity to climate. Ocean Sciences Meeting, Honolulu, HI, February 2006. (Talk)
Galbraith, Eric D, Schmittner, Andreas and Pedersen, Tom F (2005). Millennial-scale variations of nitrogen isotopes and export proxies in the subarctic Pacific during MIS 3: Evidence for an oceanic fertility switch? AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, CA, December 2005. (Poster)
Galbraith, Eric D, Schmittner, Andreas, Meissner, Katrin and Pedersen, Tom F (2005). Dissolved oxygen and the marine nitrogen cycle: model results and sediment records. SPOT-ON, Warnemünde, Germany, July 2005. (Poster)
Galbraith, Eric D and Pedersen, Tom F (2005). Interactions between climate and the marine nitrogen cycle on glacial-interglacial timescales. DISCO XIX, Kona, HI, May 2005. (Invited talk)
Galbraith, Eric D, Meissner, Katrin and Pedersen, Tom F (2004). Glacial-Interglacial modulation of the marine nitrogen cycle by physical O2 supply: sediment records and model results. International Conference on Paleoceanography, Biarritz, France, September 2004. (Poster)
Galbraith, Eric, Pedersen, Tom, Kienast, Markus and Calvert, Stephen (2004). Sedimentary N isotopes dominated by glacial-interglacial modulation of the marine nitrogen cycle. AGU-CGU Joint Meeting, Montreal, May 2004. (Talk)
Galbraith, Eric D and Pedersen, Tom F (2004). Carbon export in the Gulf of Alaska not driven by Fe-fertilization during the past 150,000 years. SOLAS Annual meeting, Montreal, QC, May 2004. (Poster)
Galbraith, Eric D, Kienast, Markus, Pedersen, Tom F and Calvert, Stephen E (2003). Glacial-interglacial modulation of the marine nitrogen cycle by oxygen-supply to intermediate waters. AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, CA, December 2003. (Poster)
Galbraith, Eric D, Kienast, Markus and Pedersen, Tom F (2003). A simple sensitivity analysis of the global marine fixed-N budget to perturbations, as constrained by sedimentary nitrogen isotope records. EGS - AGU - EUG Joint Assembly, Nice, France, April 2003. (Talk)
Galbraith, Eric, Needoba, Joseph and Pedersen, Tom (2002). Frustule-bound Nitrogen Isotopes: Observations From Cultured Diatoms and From Late Quaternary Diatom-Rich Sediments From the Gulf of Alaska. Ocean Sciences Meeting, Honolulu, HI, February 2002. (Poster)
Galbraith, Eric D. and Pedersen, Tom F (2001). Frustule-bound d15N in Quaternary diatom-rich horizons from the Gulf of Alaska. American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, San Fransisco, CA, December 2001. (Poster)
Galbraith, Eric D., Westley, Marian and Pedersen, Tom F (2001). Frustule-bound d15N in Quaternary diatom-rich horizons from the Gulf of Alaska. International Conference on Paleoceanography, Sapporo, Japan, September 2001. (Poster)