Aron Stubbins
Professor, Marine and Environmental Sciences
Professor, Chemistry and Chemical Biology
Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Contact
- a.stubbins@northeastern.edu
- Mailstop: 102 HT
360 Huntington Avenue
Boston, Massachusetts 02115
Social Media
Office
- 110D MU
- 617.373.5872
Lab
- 107/108 MU
Research Focus
Environmental chemistry; geochemistry; the carbon cycle; freshwater, coastal and ocean biogeochemistry; feedbacks between natural biogeochemical cycles and climate change; permafrost; black carbon; aquatic microplastics
About
I grew up in Wales and received my PhD in Marine Biogeochemistry from Newcastle University (Newcastle, England). After that I did a postdoc at Old Dominion University (Norfolk, VA) before becoming a professor at Skidaway Institute of Oceanography (UGA, Savannah, GA). Finally I moved to Northeastern in 2018. I study the natural carbon cycle, how humans are altering it, and plastics in the environment. I see plastics as a novel component of the carbon cycle as well as potential pollutants.
Education
- PhD, Newcastle University, 2002
Honors & Awards
- Fellow, Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography
Teaching Interests
Earth’s Changing Cycles (ENVR 2200) provides an introduction to how humans have altered Earth’s biogeochemical cycles, including the carbon cycle, nutrient cycles, climate, and the advent of plastics as a global cycle.
Professional Affiliations
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography
American Geophysical Union
American Chemical Society
Research Overview
Environmental chemistry; geochemistry; the carbon cycle; freshwater, coastal and ocean biogeochemistry; feedbacks between natural biogeochemical cycles and climate change; permafrost; black carbon; aquatic microplastics
The global cycles of carbon and plastics.
Research into the cycling of natural carbon focusses upon dissolved organic carbon in natural waters from the depths of the ocean to the Tibetan plateau. I have conducted fieldwork in the open ocean, at hydrothermal vents, on glaciers, on the Amazon River, and in the Siberian Arctic. The diversity of research sites is required to develop a coherent understanding of the global cycles of elements, particularly carbon. The focus upon carbon is due its central role in determining global climate, as the building block of life, and the food that fuels natural ecosystems.
Studying plastics is a natural extension of my work on the carbon cycle. Plastics are also formed predominantly from carbon. They are now also everywhere on Earth, including in the air we breathe. To understand the risk plastics pose, we need to understand where they are in the environment and what types of byproducts are formed when the degrade.
Selected Research Projects
- Evaluating Patterns and Controls on Microplastic Accumulation in Floodplains
- – co-Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation
- CBET: The Role of Sunlight in Determining the Fate and Microbial Impact of Microplastics in Surface Waters
- – Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation, Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental and Transport Systems
- Constraining the Source of Oceanic Dissolved Black Carbon Using Compound-Specific Stable Carbon Isotopes
- – Co-Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation
- RAPID: Extreme Water use Patterns and their Impact on the Microbial and Chemical Ecology of Drinking Water
- – Co-Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation
Department Research Areas
Selected Publications
- Full list of publications: Google Scholar
- Kai Ziervogel, Sierra Kehoe, Astrid Zapata De Jesus, Alireza Saidi-Mehrabad, Miriam Robertson, Ariana Patterson, Aron Stubbins, Microbial interactions with microplastics: Insights into the plastic carbon cycle in the ocean, Marine Chemistry, Volume 262, 2024, 104395, ISSN 0304-4203
- Tuttle, Erin, Stubbins, Aron (2023). An optimized acidic digestion for the isolation of microplastics from biota-rich samples and cellulose acetate matrices. Environmental Pollution, 322,121198. 10.1016/J.ENVPOL.2023.121198
- , , , , Plastics in the Earth system, Science, 373 (6550), 51-55. DOI: 10.1126/science.abb0354.
- Van Stan, J. T. and Stubbins, A. (2018) Tree‐DOM: Dissolved organic matter in throughfall and stemflow. Limnology and Oceanography Letters, 3: 199-214. doi:10.1002/lol2.10059.
- S. Wagner, J. Brandes, R.G. Spencer, K. Ma, S.Z. Rosengard, J.M.S. Moura, A. Stubbins (2019) Isotopic Composition of Oceanic Dissolved Black Carbon Reveals Non-Riverine Source, Nature Communications, 10(1), 1-8. doi:10.1038/s41467-019-13111-7.
- Stubbins, A. (2016) A carbon for every nitrogen. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1612995113.
- Moran, M. A., E. B. Kujawinski, A. Stubbins, R. Fatland and 13 others (2016) Deciphering Ocean Carbon in a Changing World. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1514645113.
- Hawkes, J. A., P. E. Rossel, A. Stubbins, D. Butterfield, D. P. Connelly, E. P. Achterberg, A. Koschinsky, V. Chavagnac, C. Hansen, W. Bach, T. Dittmar (2015) Efficient removal of recalcitrant deep-ocean dissolved organic matter during hydrothermal circulation. Nature Geoscience. doi:10.1038/ngeo2543.
- Jaffé, R., Ding, Y., Niggemann, J., Vähätalo, A.V., Stubbins, A., Spencer, R.G.M., Campbell, J., Dittmar, T. (2013) Global charcoal mobilization from soils via dissolution and riverine transport to the oceans. Science. doi: 1126/science.1231476.
- Stubbins, A., Hood, E., Raymond, P.A., Aiken, G.R., Sleighter, R.L., Hernes, P.J., Butman, D., Hatcher, P.G., Striegl, R.G., Schuster, P., Abdulla, H.A.N., Vermilyea, A.W., Scott, D.T., and Spencer, R.G.M. (2012) Anthropogenic aerosols as a source of ancient dissolved organic matter in glaciers. Nature Geoscience. doi: 10.1038/NGEO1403.
Jun 25, 2024
Scientists Sound Alarm Over Threat Altering Ocean’s Ability To Absorb Carbon: ‘A Threat to Global Scale Processes’
MES/COS/CEE Professor Aron Stubbins was featured in the Yahoo article “Scientists Sound Alarm Over Threat Altering Ocean’s Ability To Absorb Carbon: ‘A Threat to Global Scale Processes’.”
May 21, 2024
New Study Finds That Microplastics Reduce the Efficiency of Removing Carbon Dioxide From the Atmosphere
MES/COS/CEE Professor Aron Stubbins co-authored a new study, published in Marine Chemistry, which shows that microplastics slow down the ocean’s natural carbon sink process. This is reducing the ocean’s ability to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which impedes it from helping offset the climate crisis.
Apr 22, 2024
5 NSF Projects Transforming How Researchers Understand Plastic Waste
MES/COS/CEE Professor Aron Stubbins’ research on plastic pollution was featured in the NSF article “5 NSF Projects Transforming How Researchers Understand Plastic Waste.”
Mar 21, 2024
Field Experts Discuss the Monitoring of Microplastics in the Massachusetts Bay
At a full-day workshop, CEE/MES Associate Professor Loretta Fernandez, and members of research organizations, academia, and industry discussed microplastics in local water systems and proposed solutions to prevent potential health impacts as the plastics degrade.
Feb 02, 2024
How Sunlight Degrades Marine Plastics
MES/COS/CEE Professor Aron Stubbins was featured in the PBS Instagram post “How Sunlight Degrades Marine Plastics.” This research was published as “Molecular Signatures of Dissolved Organic Matter Generated From the Photodissolution of Microplastics in Sunlit Seawater” in Environmental Science & Technology and “Photochemical Dissolution of Buoyant Microplastics to Dissolved Organic Carbon: Rates and Microbial Impacts” […]
Dec 07, 2023
Sunlight Is Breaking Down Plastic Threatening Ocean Health
MES/COS/CEE Professor Aron Stubbins has found that sunlight breaks down plastics in the ocean into hundreds of new chemicals which will potentially have harmful environmental and health consequences.
Dec 07, 2023
2023 Stanford University Annual Assessment of Author Citations
The following COE professors are among the top scientists worldwide selected by Stanford University representing the top 2% of the most-cited scientists with single-year impact in various disciplines. The selection is based on the top 100,000 by c-score (with and without self-citations) or a percentile rank of 2% or above. The list below includes those […]
Sep 15, 2023
Announcing Fall 2023 PEAK Experiences Awardees
Several engineering students and science students mentored by COE faculty are recipients of Northeastern’s Fall 2023 PEAK Experiences Awards. Projects this fall are tackling a range of topics and modes with students developing an autobiographical zine, studying the development of amphibian limbs, building better rocket parts, and more. BASE CAMP AWARDS Farhad Ibrahimzade COE’26 & […]
Apr 07, 2023
Isolating Plastics To Analyze Pollutants
MES/COS/CEE Professor Aron Stubbins’ research on “An Optimized Acidic Digestion for the Isolation of Microplastics From Biota-rich Samples and Cellulose Acetate Matrices” was published in Environmental Pollution.
Nov 02, 2022
2022 Stanford University Annual Assessment of Author Citations
The following COE professors are among the top scientists worldwide selected by Stanford University representing the top 2 percent of the most-cited scientists with single-year impact in various disciplines. The selection is based on the top 100,000 by c-score (with and without self-citations) or a percentile rank of 2% or above. The list below includes […]