Dr. Brian Glazer

Assistant Professor of Oceanography, University of Hawai'i at Manoa
http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/oceanography/glazer/

Profile

Origin: born in Pittsburgh, PA. Have lived in Kaneohe, Hawaii since 2004
Antarctic trips: this is my first trip to Antarctica.
Project role: provide an in situ look at some of the chemical gradients of the lake before disturbing the stratification. I'll also help with other geochemical and microbial analyses.
Anticipating: Antarctica holds a special place in the minds of many oceanographers. This is my first trip to Antarctica, so I'm really looking forward to almost everything. The science is cutting-edge, the environment is beautiful and challenging, and the people are adventurous. I worked on a subglacial lake project in Iceland a few years ago, and lived out on the Vatnajokull ice cap for a couple weeks, but this trip will be very different in almost every way. I've been fascinated by the Dry Valleys for many years and am very excited to get to spend some time there.
Dreading: the flights. I don't mind flying--I fly a lot, and going anywhere from Hawaii is far. But this trip has a lot of transfers. I'll spend 20 hours in the air, flying from Honolulu to Los Angeles to Auckland to Christchurch, before even heading on down to McMurdo. Also, if the rumors are true, I'm not looking forward to the lack of good coffee...
Special equipment: I’ll be using a fairly custom combination of electrochemical analyzers and in situ equipment and sensors.

Research Interests

In the near-term, I am concentrating on oxic-suboxic-anoxic transitions in aquatic systems to better understand the relationship between redox disequilibria and microbes living in proximity to, or even mediating, steep redox gradients and pronounced geochemical interfaces. Microbes can use a wide range of electron acceptors in addition to oxygen for respiration. Microbial processes are thereby integral to all the major elemental cycles relevant to life on Earth, making oxic-suboxic-anoxic transitions and their associated changes in energy flow and chemical speciation of particular interest. Furthermore, processes occurring at oxic-suboxic-anoxic transitions of diverse temporal and spatial scales have been globally significant throughout Earth’s evolutionary history and are likely to be important in any aquatic environment that may potentially exist (or have existed) in extraterrestrial environments.

Preliminary results from samples collected by Doran’s team in 2005 indicated a unique stratified system at Lake Vida, with high ammonia, high iron, and high microbial counts. My participation in this expedition aims to collect clean, unobtrusive, in situ voltammetric profiling of the stratified brine prior to discrete sampling. Real-time in situ voltammetric measurements should assist targeted and efficient fluid collection, as well as quantify gradients of manganese, iron, and if present, various sulfur species of intermediate oxidation state.

For more information, please visit www.soest.hawaii.edu/oceanography/glazer/