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RAFAEL RASSE

An Integrated Perspective on Biogeochemical Cycles

I am a chemist with pluridisciplinary skills, holding a PhD in Chemistry (Earth Science) and a Postgraduate Certificate in Ocean Observatories. My solid multidisciplinary background and skills allow me to have a wide understanding and a unique integrative view on: (1) how various mechanisms concurrently drive the biogeochemical cycles of key elements in the planet’s main reservoirs (i.e. atmosphere, land, ocean and rivers); (2) how such cycles are interconnected within (and between) the reservoirs and partially drive the Earth’s climate; and (3) key biogeochemical knowledge gaps, which I ultimately aim to fill by proposing novel solutions combining traditional and ground-breaking cross-disciplinary approaches, particularly in the poorly oxygenated tropical oceans.

General Topic of Research

Investigating the biogeochemical cycles of carbon and nitrogen in the Earth’s main reservoirs by combining conventional and revolutionary approaches of quantification.

Current and Major Topic of Interest

Biogeochemical cycles of carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen in oxygen minimum zones (OMZs) and anoxic basins.

Career Goal

Contributing to unravel the key set of mechanisms that concurrently modulate the carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen cycles in OMZs and anoxic basins to ultimately contribute to refining their mechanistic predictions.

Main Independent International Multidisciplinary Projects

Pluridisciplinary Research Programmes

International Cross-Disciplinary Training

 

Graduate Courses (> 40 credits, Period: 2007-2012)

Selected Communication and Outreach

Skills by Topics

My research into different aspects of the Earth’s reservoir has led me to develop a range of skills, as described below:

Ocean-Sea.

Atmosphere. Applying high-volume cascade impactor, only-wet deposition sampler, meteorological station, and satellite products (i.e. backward air-masses trajectories) during investigations.

Rivers. Automatic pumping sampler, multiparametric ultrasound, general oceanic speedometer, and satellite products for rivers basins (i.e. precipitation).

Land. Closed chamber methods to collect and then measure greenhouse gases emitted from corn fields via gas chromatography (i.e. CO2 & N2O).

Instruments in the Lab

Deployment of Biogeochemical (BGC) Argo Floats, Field Work, and Cruise Expeditions

Since the beginning of my career, I have been leading and participating in fieldwork to investigate biogeochemical cycles in the planet’s main reservoirs (i.e. land, ocean, rivers, and atmosphere) on local, regional, and global scales and over a continuum of timescales (from days to years). More recently, I have been involved in the deployment of BGC-Argo floats.

Deployment of BGC-Argo floats in tropical OMZs. Since 2014, I have been directly involved in coordinating the deployment of the first BGC-Argo floats in OMZs of the eastern tropical north Atlantic and north Pacific. More recently (2020), I deployed the first float attached with an underwater video profiler (UVP) along with an array of sensors that will allow me to generate key information on how diverse mechanisms modulate the cycles of C, O, and N. video  

 

Field work, and cruise expeditions Atlantic Meridional Transect 24 and 26. (80 days). Activities. AMT24: Collecting suspended POM in the surface and mesopelagic layer of the main Atlantic provinces, and processing optical data collected by WETLabs spectral absorption and attenuation meter (role: participant). AMT26: Collecting suspended POM in the surface and mesopelagic layer of the ETNA OMZ, and measuring optical properties. Building and testing an enclosed filtration system with positive pressure to collect suspended POM (role: independent international researcher).

 

Carbonate Chemistry in Coastal tropical regions (15 days). Activities. Periodic measurements of the physicochemical and biological parameters in coastal zones at subtropical (Bermuda, see acknowledgements here:website) and tropical (Venezuela) latitudes to evaluate the exchange of greenhouse gases (i.e. CO2).

 

Bermuda Atlantic Time series (BATS, 30 days).

 

Atmospheric deposition at the northeast of the anoxic Cariaco basin (3 months). Activities. Carrying out a selected strategy at the best sampling location to collect atmospheric samples and quantify atmospheric deposition of dissolved nutrients over the anoxic Cariaco basin (role: scientist leader).

 

Dissolved nitrogen loaded by tropical rivers (48 days over a time series of one year). Activities. Monthly measurements of the in-situ physicochemical parameters, and collecting samples for the analysis of dissolved nitrogen and carbon, and suspended organic matter (role: scientist leader).

 

- GHG emitted from cornfield (45 days). Daily in situ measurements of emissions of NO, N2O and CO2 from soil. Collecting and processing soil samples for the analysis of physical and biogeochemical parameters.  

 

Ongoing International Collaborations

Peer Reviewed Publications

Published Dataset

G. Dall’Olmo; G. Ross, Rasse Boada R. J. and Strubinger P.A. 2021. Particulate organic carbon (POC) measurements from CTD bottle samples collected during the Atlantic Meridional Transect cruise AMT24 (JR20140922/JR303) between September and November 2014. [data]

Venezuelan and International Funding Agencies (Trainings and Fellowships)

 

Illustration Credits

AMT Programme, BATS Programme, CARIACO Ocean Time-Series Programme, Victoria Cheung, Thomas Boniface, Robert Brewin, Rodrigo Cab, Hervé Claustre, Giorgio Dall’Olmo, Fernanda Giannini, Adriana Guiliante, Thomas Jessin, José Lozano, Sorena Marquina, Megly Mendoza, N-NET project, POGO, Antoine Poteau, Rafael Rasse, REFINE project, Avery Snyder, SOLAS, and Bess Ward.