Uncategorized

A closer look at the health of groundwater resources along coastlines Coastal aquifers promote characteristic subsurface ecosystems at the world’s land-ocean boundaries and provide water sources for more than one billion people in coastal regions. But they are also prone to effects of climate change and human population growth. What are the drivers of biodiversity…

NSF Biological Oceanography funded our project titled “Collaborative Research: Illuminating Cave Benthos in Subterranean Estuaries: Biodiversity, Ecology, and Role in Coastal Ecosystem Functioning” with PhD student Shari Rohret, PI Joan Bernhard, co-PI David Brankovits, co-PI Liz Borda (TAMUSA), and John Pohlman (USGS). The 3-year project started in April 2022.

Our abstract titled “Modern methane and dissolved organic matter radiocarbon signatures suggest rapid transfer of organic carbon from a tropical forest to the underlying subterranean estuary ecosystem” has been invited for an oral presentation to the EGU General Assembly 2020. Click here to download pdf. Update: presentations will be held virtually due to COVID-19 pandemic.…

The nature documentary titled “Budapest Inferno – The Secret of The Molnár János Cave” features some of my work in cave systems.  Click here or the poster for the trailer.  Feel free to get in touch if you are interested in watching the movie and/or if you would like to use it for educational purposes.

Video shows how tilt-current meters, manufactured by Lowell Instruments, are deployed to measure flow in the extensive coastal cave networks.

Interview by the Seeker Magazine about our publication in Nature Communications (Brankovits et al., 2017).  Click here for the video:

The exhibition “Microbial Life: A Universe at the Edge of Sight” at the Harvard National History Museum features our findings regarding the role of bacteria (specifically methane-feeding bacteria) in food webs from coastal cave habitats (Brankovits et al., 2017). Click here for more information about the exhibit.

U.S. Geological Survey’s news release about a cryptic methane-fueled ecosystem, the major finding of my dissertation study. Click here to read more.

Interview by the Texas A&M University’s magazine shortly after my dissertation defense.  Click here for the article.