Alan Shiller

Alan Shiller is Professor of Marine Science at the University of Southern Mississippi. At present, most of his research involves trace element studies, though he is also involved in studies relating to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, examinations of methane geochemistry, research on submarine groundwater discharge. Shiller’s group will sample and analyze the methane distribution during the Pacific Meridional Transect (PMT) and they will also receive samples to be analyzed later for dissolved gallium (Ga), barium (Ba), and rare earth elements (REEs). The studies his group will undertake are pertinent to important issues including delivery of mineral dust and nutrient iron to the surface ocean (Ga), removal and internal cycling of trace elements (Ba, REEs), development of paleoceanographic tracers (Ba), tracing sources of material (Ga, Ba, REEs, methane) including margin sources (Ba, REEs, methane), and understanding of conservative vs non-conservative changes in tracer distributions (Ba, REEs). Overall, the gradients in dust delivery, productivity, age of deep waters, and extent of oxygen minimum zones in the PMT provide opportunities to compare how trace element distributions are affected by these gradients and hence inform the interpretation of the distributions. Shiller’s graduate student Laura Whitmore will be on Leg 1 and his postdoc Virginie Sanial will be on Leg 2