About the seminar:

Wildfires are natural ecosystem disturbances that have both positive and negative implications like stimulating vegetation growth and polluting sensitive ecosystems, respectively. Precipitation events transport fire-impacted organic molecules into watersheds. It is important to identify the mobilized organic compounds to help predict the potential environmental implications of wildfires on aquatic ecosystems. Mass spectrometry is a commonly used technique for characterization of organic molecules in aquatic systems. Thus, I will discuss different mass spectrometry approaches targeting biomarkers for determining fire extent by liquid chromatography quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry, examining compositional changes along a burn severity gradient by Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry, and utilizing an untargeted method to characterize biologically relevant small organic molecules (metabolites) in soils by single quadrupole gas chromatography mass spectrometry. In my research, I will be using liquid chromatography and gas chromatography mass spectrometry to elucidate the changes in the metabolomic profile of wildfire impacted watersheds. Findings from this study may help explain observed differences in biogeochemical cycling of carbon and nutrients in aquatic ecosystems.