CGCS Directory

Dr. Ryan Woosley

Principal Research Scientist, CGCS
Research Staff

Research Interests:

Ryan Woosley is a marine physical chemist focusing on the carbon cycle and ocean acidification. To date he has focused on quantifying the uptake and storage of anthropogenic carbon in the ocean over decadal time scales utilizing repeat hydrography cruises. These cruises utilize high precision carbon measurements repeated approximately every 10 years to look at changes in carbon chemistry and to separate natural versus anthropogenic causes. Quantifying these anthropogenic changes requires high precision and high accuracy measurements. Therefore, he has also been working to improve our accuracy and precision of carbon system measurements in order to further improve our understanding of the carbon cycle and the human perturbations of the cycle. 

Ocean acidification has effects beyond just the  carbon system. He is also working to understand some of the other effects of ocean acidification such as the speciation, solubility, and kinetics of trace metals. Trace metals have important implications for marine organisms as they can be trace nutrients  or toxic. The pH of seawater plays an important role in the bioavailability of trace elements to organisms and thus plays an important role in the overall productivity of the oceans. He also has an interest in other physical chemical properties of the ocean such as the equation of state.

PUBLICATIONS

Woosley, R.J., F.J. Millero, T. Takahashi (2017) Internal Consistency of the inorganic carbon system in the Arctic Ocean, Lim. Oceanogr. Methods. 15(10):887-896. doi: 10.1002/lom3.10208.

Woosley, R.J. (2016) Carbonate Compensation Depth, in Encyclopedia of Geochemistry, W.M. White (Ed.), Springer International, Switzerland. DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-39193-9_85-1

Woosley, R.J., F.J. Millero, R. Wanninkhof (2016) Rapid Changes in CO2 and pH in the Atlantic Ocean: 2003 – 2014, Global Biogeochem. Cyl. 30:70-90. DOI:10.1002/2015GB005248

Sharp, J.D, M.H.M. Albehadili, F.J. Millero, R.J. Woosley (2015) Estimating the Density and Compressibility of Natural Hypersaline Brines Using the Pitzer Ionic Interaction Model, Aquatic Geochem. 21:11-29. DOI 10.1007/s10498-015-9252-4

Amornthammarong, N., P.B. Ortner, J. Hendee, R. Woosley (2014) A simplified coulometric method for multi-sample measurements of total dissolved inorganic carbon concentration in marine waters. Analyst. 139:5263-5270. DOI: 10.1039/c4an01049c

Woosley, R.J., F. Huang, F.J. Millero (2014) Estimating Absolute Salinity (SA) in the World’s Ocean Using Density and Composition Deep-Sea Research I. 93:14-20. DOI: 10.1016/j.dsr.2014.07.009

Woosley, R.J., F.J. Millero (2013) Pitzer Model for the Speciation of Lead Chloride and Carbonate Complexes in Natural Waters Mar. Chem. 149:1-7. DOI:10.1016/j.marchem.2012.11.004

Google Scholar Profile

 

Contact Information

t: 617-253-1984
e: rwoosley@mit.edu
w:

Education

Ph.D., Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami, Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, 2012
B.S., Chemical Oceanography. Florida Institute of Technology, 2007