Dr. Nathaniel E. Ostrom |
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Michigan State University College of Natural Science Zoology ProfessorAppointed: 2004 Michigan State University Biogeochemistry Program Co-DirectorAppointed: 2006 Michigan State University College of Natural Science Zoology Graduate Program DirectorAppointed: 2006 Michigan State University College of Natural Science Ecology & Evolutionary Biology & Behavior FacultyAppointed: 1994 |  |
Mailing AddressDepartment of Zoology Michigan State University 203 Natural Sciences Building East Lansing, Michigan 48824-1115United States | Contact Information |
Qualifications
Ph.D., Memorial University of Newfoundland, Earth Science, 1992.
M.Sc., Memorial University of Newfoundland, Earth Science, 1989.
B.Sc., University of Tampa, Marine Science, Biology, Chemistry, 1985.
Expertise and Research Interests
My reserach focuses on the application of stable isotopes, primarily carbon and nitrogen, in biogeochemistry. Currently applications include:
1. The use of carbon isotopes in Stable Isotope Probing of soil microbes as a means to understand which groups of bacteria are involved in the metabolism of different substrates. Current applications involve identifying microbes associated with contaminant degradation such as biphenyl.
2. The use of oxygen isotopes to understand net ecosystem metabolism of aquatic environments. Oxygen isotopes can reveal rates of respiration and primary production, which is particularly important in understanding the development of hypoxia. We've been applying this approach throughout the Great Lakes with a more recent focus on Lake Erie.
3. The use of isotopomers of nitrous oxide to evaluate the relative importance of nitrification and denitrification in the evolution of this trace gas from soils. We have found that the position and level of 15N enrichment in N2O can be used to understand its microbial origins.
4. The development of instrumentation to effect the in situ and remote measurement of the isotopic composition of gases in the natural environment.
1. The use of carbon isotopes in Stable Isotope Probing of soil microbes as a means to understand which groups of bacteria are involved in the metabolism of different substrates. Current applications involve identifying microbes associated with contaminant degradation such as biphenyl.
2. The use of oxygen isotopes to understand net ecosystem metabolism of aquatic environments. Oxygen isotopes can reveal rates of respiration and primary production, which is particularly important in understanding the development of hypoxia. We've been applying this approach throughout the Great Lakes with a more recent focus on Lake Erie.
3. The use of isotopomers of nitrous oxide to evaluate the relative importance of nitrification and denitrification in the evolution of this trace gas from soils. We have found that the position and level of 15N enrichment in N2O can be used to understand its microbial origins.
4. The development of instrumentation to effect the in situ and remote measurement of the isotopic composition of gases in the natural environment.
Future Research
Applications of mass spectrometry for the real time and continuous monitoring of the abundance and isotopic composition of trace and abundant gases.
Keywords
COS Keywords:
Biogeochemistry, Earth Sciences, Geology, Limnology, Microbial Ecology, Microbiology, Oceanography.Additional Terms:
Biogeochemistry, Geomicrobiology, Microbial Ecology, Stable Isotopes.Memberships
American Geophysical Union
Ecological Society of America
Geochemical Society
Previous Positions
2004-2006, Chair,
Joint Publications Committee of the Geochemical and Meteoritical Societies
2002, Professor,
Michigan State University,
College of Natural Science,
Geological Sciences
1999-2003, Associate Editor,
Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta
1997-2002, Associate Professor,
Michigan State University,
College of Natural Science,
Geological Sciences
1992-1997, Assistant Professor,
Michigan State University,
College of Natural Science,
Geological Sciences
Funding Received
- SGER: Collaborative Research: Development of a Prototype Field-deployable Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometer for Biogeochemistry, $200,000, 2008 to 2009.
- Michigan State University Center for Water Sciences: Quantifying biogeochemical processes in through-flow wetlands, $145,036, 2006 to 2008.
- Michigan State University Environmental Science and Policy Program: Environmental Biogeochemistry as a MSU Signature Program, $50,000, 2006 to 2007.
- NOAA and Standford University: Novel Methods for Identifying and Quantifying Nutrient Inputs and Cycling in Lake Erie, $48,399, 2005 to 2007.
- Michigan State University: Development of a membrane inlet cycloidal-focusing mass spectrometer for ocean and environmental research, $25,165, 2005 to 2006.
- National Institutes of Health (NIH): Probing microbial communities by stable isotope and RNA/DNA analyses, $223,804, 2003 to 2005.
- Department of Energy: Towards understanding population dynamics of metal and radionuclide reducers at field remediation sites, $695,952, 2003 to 2006.
- National Science Foundation (NSF): Origins of nitrous oxide in terrestrial environments: Applications of isotopes and isotopomers, $599,972, 2003 to 2006.
- Environmental Protection Agency (EPA): Lake Erie trophic status and primary production: evaluation based on d18O and dO2/Ar, $11,197, 2003 to 2004.
- Environmental Protection Agency (EPA): Evaluation of Primary Production and Trophic State in Lake Erie, $38,395, 2002 to 2004.
- National Science Foundation (NSF): Acquisition of stable isotope ratio mass spectrometers, $397,657, 2000 to 2001.
- Michigan Sea Grant (NOAA): Evaluation of the trophic states of Lakes Michigan and Superior, $138,110, 2000 to 2002.
- National Science Foundation (NSF): Collaborative proposal: Controls on nitrous oxide production: interaction between nitrification, denitrification and nitrogen fixation, $208,912, 1998 to 2002.
- National Science Foundation (NSF): Long-Term Ecological Research in Field Crop Ecosystems, $4,200,000, 1998 to 2004.
- NSF/DOE/NASA/USDA (Joint Program on Terrestrial Ecology and Global Change): Closing the global nitrous oxide cycle: a mechanistic understanding of flux partitioning in agricultural landscapes, $186,989, 1996 to 1999.
- Environmental Protection Agency (EPA): Trophic transfer of atmospheric and sedimentary contaminants into Great Lakes fish: controls on ecosystem-scale response times, $617,254, 1996 to 1999.
- Michigan Sea Grant (NOAA): The effects of food web structure and dynamics on toxaphene bioaccumulation, $124,355, 1996 to 1998.
- NOAA/National Undersea Research Program: Trophic transfer of particle-reactive chemicals in the benthic food webs of oligotrophic systems: Lake Superior, $79,406, 1994 to 1996.
- NOAA/National Undersea Research Program: Settling, burial, and recycling of carbon and particle-reactive trace metal contaminants in oligotrophic systems: Lake Superior, $43,714, 1994 to 1996.
- National Science Foundation (NSF): Soil-stream interfaces as control-points for speciation and transformations of nitrogen in a heterogeneous landscape, $98,179, 1992 to 1994.
Publications
- Ostrom N.E., A. Pitt, R.L. Sutka, P.H. Ostrom, A.S. Grandy, K.M. Huizinga, G.P. Robertson (2007) Isotopologue Effects During N2O Reduction in Soils and in Pure Cultures of Denitrifiers, Journal of Geophysical Research - Biogeosciences, 112, doi:10.1029/2006JG00
- Hamilton S.K., Ostrom N.E. (2007) Measurement of the stable isotope ratio of dissolved N2 in N-15 tracer experiments, Limnology and Oceanography Methods, 5, 233-240
- Leigh M.B., V.H. Pellizari, O. Uhlý´k, R. Sutka, J. Rodrigues, N.E. Ostrom, J. Zhou, J.M. Tiedje (2007) Biphenyl-utilizing bacteria and their functional genes in a pine root zone, International Society of Microbial Ecology Journal, 1, 134-148
- Sutka RL, Ostrom NE, Ostrom PH, Breznak JH, Gandhi H, Pitt AJ, Li F (2006) Distinguishing nitrous oxide production from nitrification, and denitrification on the basis of isotopomer abundances, Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 72, 638-644
- Ostrom NE, Carrick HJ, Twiss MR, Piwinski L, Evaluation of Primary Production in Lake Erie By Multiple Proxies, Oecologia, 144, 115-124, 2005
- Ostrom NE, Russ ME, Field A, Piwinski L, Twiss MR, Carrick HJ, Understanding the Relationship Between Primary Production and Respiration in Lake Erie Based on Oxygen Isotope Techniques, Journal of Great Lakes Research, In Press, 2005
- Russ ME, Temporal and, Journal of Geophysical Rsearch, www.agu.org, American Geophysical Union, 109(C10), doi:10.1029/2003JC00, 2004
- Sutka RL, Ostrom NE, Ostrom PH, Breznak JH, Gandhi H, Erratum: Nitrogen Isotopomer Site Preference of N2O Produced By Nitrosomonas Europaea and Methylococcus Capsulatus Bath, Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry, 18, 1-2, 2004
- Gandhi H, Wiegner T, Ostrom PH, Kaplan LA, Ostrom NE, Isotopic (13C) Analysis of Dissolved Organic Carbon in Stream Water Samples Using An Elemental Analyzer Coupled to a Stable Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometer, Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry, 18, 903-906, 2004
- Sutka RL, Ostrom NE, Ostrom PH, Phanikumar MS, Stable Nitrogen Isotope Dynamics of Dissolved Nitrate in a Transect From the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre to the Eastern Tropical North Pacific, Geochimica Et Cosmochimica Acta, 68, 517-524, 2004
- Sutka RL, Ostrom NE, Ostrom PH, Gandhi H, Breznak JA, Nitrogen isotopomer site preference of N2O produced by Nitrosomonas
europaea and Methylococcus capsulatus Bath, Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry : Rcm, 17(7), 738-45, 2003
- Bergsma TT, Robertson GP, Ostrom NE, Influence of soil moisture and land use history on denitrification
end-products, Journal of Environmental Quality, 31(3), 711-7, 2002
- Popp B.N, M.B. Westley, S. Toyoda, T. Miwa, J.E. Dore, N. Yoshida, T.M. Rust, F.J. Sansone, M.E. Russ, N.E. Ostrom and P. Ostrom, Nitrogen and oxygen isotopomeric constraints on the origins and sea-to-air flux of N2O in the oligotrophic subtropical North Pacific gyre, Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 16(4), 1064, doi:10.1029/20, 2002
- Ostrom N.E., L.O. Hedin, J.C. von Fisher and G.P. Robertson, Nitrogen transformations and nitrate removal at a soil-stream interface: a stable isotope approach, Ecological Applications, 12, 1027-1043, 2002
- Bergsma TT, Ostrom NE, Emmons M, Robertson GP, Measuring simultaneous fluxes from soil of N2O and N2 in the field Using
the 15N-gas 'nonequilibium' technique, Environmental Science & Technology, 35(21), 4307-12, November 2001
- Stapleton HM, Masterson C, Skubinna J, Ostrom P, Ostrom NE, Baker JE, Accumulation of atmospheric and sedimentary PCBs and toxaphene in a Lake
Michigan food web, Environmental Science & Technology, 35(16), 3287-93, August 2001
- Lilburn TG, Kim KS, Ostrom NE, Byzek KR, Leadbetter JR, Breznak JA, Nitrogen fixation by symbiotic and free-living spirochetes, Science, 292(5526), 2495-8, June 2001
- Silliman J.E., P.A. Meyers, P.H. Ostrom, N.E. Ostrom and B.J. Eadie, The origin of sedimentary perylene in Saanich Inlet, British Columbia, Organic Geochemistry, 31, 1133-1142, 2000
- Roberts B.J., M.E. Russ and N.E. Ostrom, Rapid and precise determination of d18O of dissolved and gaseous di oxygen via gas chromatograph isotope ratio mass spectrometry, Environmental Science and Technology, 34, 2337-2341, 2000
- Ostrom N.E., M.E. Russ, B. Popp, T.M. Rust and D.M. Karl, Mechanisms of N2O production in the subtropical North Pacific based on determinations of the isotopic abundances of N2O and O2, Chemosphere - Global Change Science, 2, 281-290, 2000
- Bergsma T.T., Q.C. Bergsma, N.E. Ostrom and G.P. Robertson, A heuristic model for the calculation of dinitrogen and nitrous oxide flux from 15N labeled soil, Soil Science Society of America Journal, 63, 1709-1716, 1999
- McCusker E.M, P.H. Ostrom, N.E. Ostrom, J.D. Jeremaison and J.E. Baker, Seasonal variation in the biogeochemical cycling of seston in Grand Traverse Bay, Lake Michigan, Organic Geochemistry, 30, 1543-1557, 1999
- Ostrom N.E. and P.H. Ostrom, Nitrogen isotopes, The Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences, Kluwer Academic Publ, 431-434, 1999
- Ostrom P.H., N.E. Ostrom, J. Henry, B.J. Eadie, P.A. Meyers, B.J. Eadie and J.A. Robbins, The origin and cycling of particulate and sedimentary organic matter and nitrate in Lake Superior, Chemical Geology: Isotope Geoscience, 152, 13-28, 1998
- Ostrom P.H., N.E. Ostrom, J. Henry, B.J. Eadie, P.A. Meyers, B.J. Eadie and J.A. Robbins, Changes in the trophic state of Lake Erie: Discordance between molecular d13C and bulk d13C sedimentary records, Chemical Geology: Isotope Geoscience, 152, 163-179, 1998
- Hedin L.O., J.C. von Fisher, N.E. Ostrom, M.G. Brown, and G.P. Robertson, Thermodynamic constraints on nitrogen transformations and other biogeochemical processes at soil-stream interfaces, Ecology, 79, 684-703, 1998
- Ostrom N.E., K. Knoke, L.O. Hedin, G.P. Robertson, and A. Smucker, Temporal trends in nitrogen isotope values of nitrate leaching from an agricultural soils, Chemical Geology: Isotope Geoscience, 27, 363-370, 1998
- Feuerstein T., P.H. Ostrom and N.E. Ostrom, Isotopic biogeochemistry of dissolved organic nitrogen: A new technique and application, Organic Geochemistry, 27, 363-370, 1997
- Ostrom N.E., S.A. Macko, D. Deibel and R. Thompson, Seasonal variation in the Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope biogeochemistry of a coastal cold ocean environment, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 61, 2929-2942, 1997
- Kucklick J.R., H.R. Harvey, P.H. Ostrom, N.E. Ostrom, and J.E. Baker, Organochlorine dynamics in the pelagic food web of Lake Baikal, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, 15, 1388-1400, 1996
- Ostrom N.E., and D.T. Long, Physical and chemical characteristics of seawater, The Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences, MacMillan Publishing, 957-961, 1996
- Macko S.A. and N.E. Ostrom, Pollution studies using stable isotopes, Stable isotopes in ecology and environmental science. Blackwell Scientific Publications. Oxford, Lajtha, K. and R. Michner (Eds.), 45-62, 1994
- Bakel A.J., P.H. Ostrom, N.E. Ostrom, Carbon isotopic analysis of individual n-Alkanes: Evaluation of accuracy and application to marine particulate organic material, Organic Geochemistry, 21, 595-602, 1994
- Larson G.J., T.V. Lowell and N.E. Ostrom, Evidence for the Two Creeks interstade in the Lake Huron Basin, Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 31, 793-797, 1994
- Ostrom N.E. and S.A. Macko, Sources, cycling and distribution of water column particulate and sedimentary organic matter in northern Newfoundland fjords and bays: a stable isotope study, Productivity, accumulation, and preservation of organic matter: Recent and ancient sediments, Columbia University, 55-81, 1992
- Ostrom N.E. and S.A. Macko, Late Wisconsinan to present sedimentation of organic matter off northern Newfoundland in response to climatological events, Continental Shelf Research, 11, 1285-1296, 1991
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