Fenix Garcia Tigreros, PhD

As a Postdoctoral Scholar in Professor David Butman’s Ecosystem Biogeochemistry Group, I am a part of NASA’s Arctic Vulnerability Experiment project. The goal of our research is to combine remote sensing data with field observations to better understand how variations in surface hydrology and vegetation influence carbon emissions in Arctic-Boreal lake ecosystems in Alaska and Canada.  

My research seeks to evaluate pressing questions about the aquatic carbon cycle and ongoing environmental changes. I am particularly interested in using isotope geochemistry to understand the mobilization, translocation, and transformations of climate-sensitive carbon in marine and aquatic systems. 

I come from a background in chemical oceanography. I completed my doctoral studies under the supervision of Dr. John Kessler at the University of Rochester. For my PhD, I evaluated the hypothesis that the mobilization and remineralization of ancient carbon (i.e. carbon from methane hydrates and permafrost) is enhancing ocean acidification in regions vulnerable to climate change. I also hold a masters in Oceanography from Texas A&M University where I worked under the supervision of Dr. Shari Yvon-Lewis. For my masters, I assessed the influence of riverine terrestrial organic matter on coastal inorganic carbon dynamics on the Louisiana Shelf.

Selected Publications:

Garcia-Tigreros, F, M. Leonte, C. Ruppel, A. Ruiz Angulo, D. Joung, B. Young and J. D. Kessler (2021), Estimating the impact of ancient methane on pH and dissolved inorganic radiocarbon along the U.S. Mid-Atlantic Margin. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, 126, e2019JG005621, doi: 10.1029/2019JG005621.

Garcia-Tigreros, F and J. D. Kessler (2018), Limited acute influence of aerobic methane oxidation on ocean carbon dioxide and pH in Hudson Canyon, Northern U.S. Atlantic Margin. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, 123(7), 2135-2144. doi: 10.1029/2018JG004384.

Garcia-Tigreros Kodovska, F., Sparrow, K., Yvon-Lewis, S., Paytan, A., Kessler, J. D. (2016), Dissolved methane and carbon dioxide fluxes in Subarctic and Arctic Regions: assessing measurement techniques and spatial gradients, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 436, 43-55, doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2015.12.002.

Du, M., S. Yvon-Lewis, F. Garcia-Tigreros, D.L. Valentine, S. Mendes, J.D. Kessler. (2014), High resolution measurements of methane and carbon dioxide concentrations and air-sea fluxes reveal the influence of methane seepage on greenhouse gas dynamics in a massive natural seep field near Coal Oil Point, California, Environmental Science & Technology, 48 (17), 10165-10173, doi: 10.1021/es5017813.

Bianchi, T.S., Garcia-Tigreros, F., Yvon-Lewis,S.A., Shields, M., Mills, H.J., Butman, D., Osburn, C., Raymond, P., Shank, C., DiMarco, S.F., Walker, N., Reese, B., Mullins, R., Quigg, A., Aiken, G.R., and Grossman E.L.(2013), Enhanced Transfer of Terrestrially-Derived Carbon to the Atmosphere in a Flooding Event, Geophysical Research Letters, 40(1), 116-122, doi:10.1029/2012GL054145, 2013.